


Void Meditation

by Buraidragon



Category: Destiny (Video Games), Warframe
Genre: And assorted others from the two universes, Gen, Yes this is still my first fanfic, comments/criticism is appreciated., featuring eventual reasons how/why certain mechanics are just broken in different settings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-01-28 00:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12593692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buraidragon/pseuds/Buraidragon
Summary: Tenno hide in the Void when they’re between tasks.Warlocks meditate, and sometimes their minds wander into places they probably shouldn’t be. What happens when the projection of a Guardian encounters an ancient warrior of gun and blade?





	1. 1- Well, This Probably Shouldn't be Happening.

The gate to the upper courtyard of the Tower’s hub was closed, but that didn’t stop her. If she applied enough pressure here, and pushed right here-- there. She’d slip though, just like that.  
“I still don’t see why you insist on coming here. There are countless other areas that you could do this ‘meditation’ in.” Ah, Ghost. Always worrying about her, to the point where it sounded like nagging out of faded memories from possibly millennia ago.

“I come here because it works for me, Ghost. Some Guardians like the Crucible and Iron Banner-- I prefer sitting on the ground meditating.”  
“This is the eighth time this week, though.”  
“I also do it to calm down, and Traveller knows I need that after that one moronic Titan a day ago. Who the hell gets that strong and then gets stuck in fucking scaffolding?!” As the Guardian fumes, a few crackles of Arc energy dash along her forearms. “Sorry, sorry, I’m still pissed about that.”

Ghost chimes and tones for a few seconds. “....This is the third time thinking about that strike has caused you to loose minor control over your abilities.”  
“This is another reason why I meditate, Ghost. It helps me stop those events from happening. Ditto the music when I’m just bringing things for Rahool to decode. It helps me relax from all the murdering and near death-slash-death experiences. You may make me immortal, little light, but I’m still human.”  
“Don’t call me that.”  
“You keep being a bit of a butt.”  
“...I have not heard that used before. I shall look into what it means.”

The Warlock sighs, pinching the tanned bridge of her nose. “You go do that. I’ll just be sitting here, meditating. Oh, could you materialize that music player I repaired a while ago, actually?”  
“Sure, Guardian.” The Ghost materializes a small box, a relic of the Golden Age. She could sell it for all the glimmer, but really, she doesn’t need it. Besides, it can store her rambling notes and resist the sheer void of outer space. And music. Humans had made more since the fall, but it all had somber and depressing tones to it. The stuff on this device was full of light.

Her Ghost flies off, and Marduk plugs the device into her helmet’s audio system. Gently pressing a few buttons, a song in a language she doesn’t know starts coursing through The Ram’s internal headphones. She crosses her legs, leans back against the barrier farthest from the closed entry door-- and with a glorious mountain view behind her she closes her eyes and meditates. She can almost sing this song, and sometimes does so in the rare instances she has time to herself.  
...Come to me, oh welcome spring…

She takes a deep breath and slumps even farther against the barrier, eventually lying down on the ground. Her limbs are spread to her sides, and her coat is bunched under her lower back. She starts taking evenly paced breaths, closing her eyes and focusing only on the music and her breaths. Ghost isn’t here. Like the time she realized what Trance was, she feels her mind drifting off to… somewhere…. Somewhere that looks kinda like the Reef, but with more green and less ship ruins. She’s been here a few times before. Well, her mind has, this stuff is just really bizarre. Ikora didn’t say it was a bad thing, though, so she’d just let her mind rest here while she meditates.

\----------------------

The black, blue, and gold of this Frost Prime frame drunkenly stumbles to the arsenal, falling on it’s face. It grunts, a very mechanical sound coming from something that acts so human. “Orokin damn it all to hell, how the fuck was that Tenno so incompetent? If you go to Draco to get used to a frame, bring a FUCKING WEAPON THAT CAN KILL THINGS. I’m focusing on murder, I can’t keep reviving your sorry ass.”

The frame keeps swearing to itself in several tongues-- most notably Grineer at the moment. Dealing with RATHUUM and Keyla de Thaym had led to picking up several colourful swears-- but there’s some Corpus and even a pinch of Orokin in there. Frost Prime kneels on the arsenal stand, and stops being.

“Operator, are you insisting on moving by yourself again?” Ordis asks.  
“Yes, yes I am.” A muffled voice comes from the back of the ship. “And no, you can’t stop me. Yes, I’ll take Frost with me into whatever part of the ship I travel to. And yes, I do plan on stuffing my face to deal with my frustration as I'm out of energy for fighting.”  
“Cressa Tal has recommended that you stay hidden for a while. Keyla de Thaym will be out for your blood seeing how you-- CRUSHED HER SINGLE HANDEDLY-- humiliated her in combat.”  
The Tenno just sighs, a leg crossing over the other as the seal on their Somatic Link chamber opens. The being held within is deathly pale, and has short yet messy hair that seems to shift from black to turquoise, depending on the lights. A chunk rests between their eyes, which are covered by dual occulus. Their eyes are a piercing blue, with a thin ring of gold in each pupil if one decides to look closely. An angry black line seems to snake it's way under their skin from chin to forehead. 

A surprisingly delicate hand massages a temple as the Tenno sits there a bit longer. “...I’m guessing that means I can’t drop by the Dojo, either?”  
“It is currently un-recommended.”  
“Fiiiiiiine, I’ll just have some of those leftovers I’ve stored in the cockpit, then. Not like freeze-dried food can go bad these days….”  
It takes some effort, but the thin Tenno rises from their seat and stumbles to the wall, leaning against it. It took time to get used to one’s true body again. Especially when most of your friggin’ leg muscles were still in somewhat-severe atrophy.

They lean against the ship’s walls and head up to the middle floor, staying far the hell away from the corner of the ship that had Infested tissues. As long as they kept their distance, it’d leave them alone. They get to Frost Prime and lean against his shoulders, taking a few deep breaths. “...I’m getting better at this.” Now, to get Frost to accompany them.

It’s incredibly easy to call forth raw Void energy into their hands, easier still to channel it into Frost. The frame rises, leaning a bit to one side. It shudders and stands, in a much wider stance than usual. The Tenno rests their hands against the frame’s chest and pours a large portion of energy into him. “Follow.”

As they walk to the cockpit, the frame follows with slightly jerky steps. She pauses by one of Inaros’s sacred urns and opens it up. Baro Ki’teer would probably be miffed if he ever learned they’re storing freeze dried food and servings of water in a sacred vessel. It made a damn good storage container, though! Once they had carefully rinsed the sand out of it by abusing Zephyr’s turbulence skill. Now, what to have?

They end up picking up a packet of thinly sliced beef, powdered cream sauce, some broccoli slivers, and pasta. That’d take….. Two servings to rehydrate the food, and and one to drink with their meal. Frost awkwardly stumbles past them, and flops down cross-legged by the navigation console. Food in their arms, Glace joins him. The flop down onto Frost’s lap, and place their food portions before them. It doesn’t take long to start the hydration process. The Tenno sits there, staring out into the Void with the radio crackling in the background.

When they’re done, they tear open the packets and mix them together in the largest one available. Ah. Fuck, they forgot to get the fork from the urn. Glace hisses in irritation, flumping into Frost’s chest. “Ordiiiiiiis. Can you somehow fling me a fork or can you not do that.”  
“I am unable to perform that action, Operator.”  
“Figures. Frost, please hold this for a second, and try not to freeze it.” They press the open food packet into the Frame’s hands and stumble towards the urn once more. Fork, fork, where the hell is that fork? Ah, there it is! Ferrite fork get! Back to Frost.

Glace gently sits back down, taking the food packet from the frame. “Thank you, my avatar.” Back to sitting in his lap. Sitting in his lap and listening the static of the radio. And the food’s alright, not good, but alright. It’d be better warm but the last time they tried to do that with the foundry Ordis had screeched at them for weeks.

They’re about halfway done when the static of the void changes to…. Something else. What was this?? It sounded…. Sounded hypnotic…. It reminded them of murmured words and snippets of notes-- Margulis. This collection of sounds reminded them of Margulis. They… didn’t remember much about her, but they were still reminded of her! Somehow. They were getting a headache trying to remember the past. “Ordis!”  
“Yes, Operator?”  
“Do you know where that signal is coming from? The one currently playing over the radio?”  
“Calculating…. Yes, I believe I can pinpoint it’s location.”  
“Follow it.”  
“Operator.”  
“Ordis. Follow it!”  
“...Yes, Operator.” The Orbiters’ engine whirrs into life, and the blocky ship banks to the right and flies deeper into the Void.

The tones get louder.

\-------------------------

She’d gone through most of a ‘playlist’ now, staring with shut eyes into this green space. The song currently playing was from sometime before the Traveller had arrived in the solar system. Apotheosis was the title, and it was an eight minute long journey of violins and other wood instruments lost to history. She’d ever tell the Speaker of this song. It was her treasure alone. Hey, surely she can be a bit selfish? 

There’s some sort of roar in the distance. It’s not in the real world. This plane of existence her mind is on, then? The shape of her mind mirrors her physical body and snaps upwards into a crouch, music still playing as a silvery version of her prized Handcannon Hawkmoon appears in her ghostly hand. Where was…. Ah, there!  
Wait.  
The hell is that thing?! It looks like it's half destroyed -- that, or it was partially cloaked, but that technology was rare-- hell, where the fuck are any windows to let the pilot see?!

Marduk is so confused by this blocky, void-covered ship that Hawkmoon has fallen limply to a side. “...I’m gonna have to talk about this with Ikora once I get back. That or one of her hidden.” I mean, this place acting like an astral plane was understandable. But something physical existing in this astral plane? She’d defeated Oryx by punching him in the face and this was more confusing than having to deal with that powerful ‘god’ by herself.

The ship draws to a stop before her floating soul-- because really, that’s what this form is-- and floats there, the sea-green of the Void flickering over its frame. A few dark blue lines-- possibly some form of engine exhaust-- dim slightly. Marduk has the feeling that something is watching her. It’s freaking her out, and Apotheosis is starting to fade out.

\----------------------

“Ordis? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”  
“That depends. Are you seeing-- A MONSTER OF PURE LIGHT-- some sort of ghostly apparition, then we are seeing the same thing.”  
“Start recording and scanning. I want this in my records so Simaris or someone else in the Relays can take a look at ‘em. Er. And if there’s any way to project part of this ship’s interior on the hull, please do so.”  
“Operator? Why would you-- BASK IN THE DEMON RAYS-- risk showing yourself to this anomaly?”  
“...I ain’t getting a bad feeling from them. I’m reminded of someone from before the start of the second dream.”  
“Who?”  
“Marguils.”  
Ordis is stunned silent. 

“...Projecting five visible feet of the ship onto the hull at fifty percent opacity.”

\----------------------------

...Was this ship becoming translucent? Oh, part of it was! But, the interior was still foggy. Marduk reaches out for part of the ship and drags herself closer, perching on the front. She could see… she could see some sort of armor sitting there, black and gleaming silver definitely visible. Hm? Movement off to the side?

She turns her head and sees another human. This one looks to be barely an adult. Maybe around seventeen? She can’t judge by appearances alone, though. Her own body is about twenty one years in age, but from all her reading, research, and experience, she was far older than that. Even if she had been dead most of that time.  
...It still counted to her, damn it.

Anyways, the young… human. She can’t really tell what sex they are. The hair and soft face suggests female, but the aquiline gaze and flat body suggest male. Maybe they’re just a really effeminate male? Yeah, she’d go with that at the moment. He was standing there, a gloved hand pressed against the ship’s hull. Marduke gently pushes off the front of the ship, drifting to a stop before him. She tilts her head, and moves her face closer to the hull of the ship; trying to see the other in more detail.

\-----------------------------

Was this being wearing an animal skull on her head? It looked like a freaking animal. Not many things they’ve seen had curved horns like that. Hell, they’d seen nothing that looked like that, not even Lephantis or the J3 Golem had horns like that! “You are one intimidating figure. Yet I feel no hostility from you. Why is that?”

The being just tilts their head, a hand resting over their own on the other side of the hull. The being of light starts a bit, and Glace could feel shock coming from the other as the skull stares at them. ...Huh? Did they feel something brushing over their Void-granted abilities? A deep breath reveals that yes, somehow this being was sensing their abilities and… doing something with that info. They’re not sure. If they can sense theirs, then can they…?

In their mind, Glace pictures a small tendril of Void. It passes harmlessly through the hull, and into the being before them. A millisecond after contact happens, Glace knew they fucked up. Information flows into their head, images of things familiar and not. Then there’s a bit of a shock-- their Void tendril gets vehemently ejected from the being before them as they both fly back two feet. The Tenno falls over onto their back, rolling over their shoulders and ending up on their stomach as they couldn’t quite do that as themselves yet.

That being was pure light. Pure light, but… human. Not Grineer, not the mooks over at New Loka-- a human. Those hadn’t been around in centuries! But the images, and that name-- this wasn’t a human from their world. No. This being-- Marduk-- they were from another Earth…?

\------------------  
What the fucking fuck was that about?! That kid in there had some serious destructive powers-- and they were filled with the howling greyness of this plane, this… Void? And that weird word-- Glace. Was that the name of their species, or their own title? She’s got no clue, but-- this kid had seen the entire outer solar system! Not just Jupiter and Saturn, no-- they’d seen Uranus, Neptune, Pluto-- other dwarf planets! But-- it wasn’t her outer solar system. Not unless a whole bunch of human-like monstrosities who liked explosives had taken up residence on Sedna. The hell was a Sedna, anyways?

It’s at this part something shocks her and she snaps her eyes open with a yipe, suddenly sitting upright in the courtyard she had been meditating in. Her ghost is sitting there, looking down in worry. “What the hell was that for, Ghost!?”  
“You weren’t breathing. I was just about to see if I needed to revive you.”  
“Meditative. Trance.”  
“No heartbeat.”  
“.....Oh. Yeah, that’s probably a cause for worry oh god no there goes the lack of bloodflow.” And Marduk passes out, mind lapsing into blissful darkness.

\-------------------

“….She’s gone.”  
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENERGY-- I mean, are you alright, Operator?”  
“I… I think so? I did get a bit of a shock, but I’m still trying to process what happened just then. I think that was someone from another world.”  
“Another world?”  
“Limbo can walk through different planes of existence, yeah? I kinda got that feeling from her-- but even more so. Instead of slipping into a dimension slightly off from this one, I think she came from a completely different one.”  
“Why do you now refer to that anomaly as she, Glace?”  
Hooh, he’s worried about them. “That energy pulse. It… somehow exchanged some data from our minds. I didn’t get much-- it passed by in a second-- but I did get a few things. That ‘anomaly’ is apparently a human, a pure human, and she’s named Marduk. I also got something about being a Warlock, whatever that is. The rest is just images.”  
“Images of what?”  
“Um…. A gleaming white tower, full of life. Some huge-ass white sphere hanging over a city. Four different races of hostile aliens. Flinging enough lightning around to make Volt Prime look pathetic.”

Wow. Having said that out loud, it sounded ridiculous. Then again, to this Marduk, their world of Frames, assassinations, and entire solar system shenanigans. She’d never seen planets beyond Saturn, hell-- she’d only seen Saturn! Not even Jupiter! That girl was missing out.  
“That sounds rather…COMPLETELY INSAN-- interesting, Operator.”  
“You’re gonna try an’ put me in a sleeping state because that sounded ridiculous, ain’t you?”  
“................”  
“At least let me finish eating. And leave some sort of recording device at this place, I want to get that… that collection of sounds if it shows up again.”  
“Are you sure this is wise?”  
“Wise or not, I…. I feel it must be done.”  
“...As you say, Operator.”

Glace flops back down into Frost’s lap, and resumes eating their meal. What could those sounds be called? They stare off into the void and slowly eat their food, contemplating this info they’ve just learned.

\--------------------------

Marduk opens a bleary eye, staring towards the ceiling. Where the hell was she? She was outside last she knew. In her sleep-addled mind, the three glowing eyes that appear above her cause her to screech, roll away, and fall on her face because edge of the table. She swears in some sort of tongue that’s harsh and grating-- and definitely not of Earth. If anything, it sounded kinda like the Cabal’s tongue.

Oh. It was just Eris Morn. “Uhh. Sorry for screeching like that. Still out of it. Kinda scared me, there.”  
“You have seen things.”  
“...Yeah, I have. I was wonderin’ if I could talk to boss lady-- er, Ikora about them. It’s some weird shit that I saw.”  
“She shall be free in a few minutes. Rest here, and she shall come for you.”  
“Yes, boss.” Marduk’s head is still spinning, so she just lies back down on the ground, staring upwards and processing what she had just seen. What she had seen being a mix of weird-ass architecture and creatures not of this world. Er, some of them? Kinda hard to tell when a lot of ‘em were wearing helmets…. And names of places lost to the Darkness, along with images-- some sort of golden-age space station around Pluto, too. And what she had screeched at Eris Morn in fear earlier. For some reason, she knows it translates to “fucking Orokin hellspawn”. But what the fuck is an Orokin? Some sorta race out there?  
...God I want my painkillers. My head won’t stop throbbing…. “Ghooooooooooooost.”  
“Yes, Marduk?”  
“Do you have those painkillers on you? An’ those leftovers from that noodle place in the City?”  
“I do. Does your headache refuse to die?”  
“Correctamundo, gimme the food an’ meds.” There’s a bit of struggling as she sits up, leaning heavily against the table leg she was resting on. Apparently she had been left on the main table in the Tower. Huh. Zavala and Cayde must be out doing something. That’s rare.  
There’s a slight crackle as Ghost materializes the requested items from his inventory. Marduk removes her gloves (their armor made out of chunks of Theosyion, high Vex asshole of time warping) and tears into the food with her fingers before Ghost can materialize any eating utensils. It’s quickly devoured, and with a small flask of water she always keeps on her, Marduk takes the medicine before relaxing back against the table.  
This is of course when Ikora Ray slams the doors open and walks in. Marduk misses her first statement as she’s rolling on the floor screeching “HEADACHE FROM HELL OH GOD WHY.” In fact, she keeps her hands over her ears until Ikora gets the message and shuts up for a while.  
Marduk refuses to speak until the medicine kicks in.  
“That’s the first time I’ve seen you excited in like… well, forever, bossman.”  
“But you stepped into another world, and you saw someone else! Very few Guardians have done that, Warlock.”  
“Yeah, well it’s not like I got to talk to them at all. Just see their blocky-ass ship.”  
“A ship? Could you sketch it, Marduk?”  
“Uhh. I think so. I’ll need to get my tablet an’ stylus-- probably a charger-- from my ship, though. And I still need a few moments. I’ll also need to go to the Reef to draw it.”  
“Why?”  
“The place I went to in my meditation looks like a greener, cloudier, less-filled-with-ruins version of the Awakened’s place, that’s why.”  
“I want that drawing as soon as possible, Warlock.”  
“Fine, fine, you’ll get it. Just let me pick up some more food from the City and you’ll get your art image.”  
“I thought you got enough to fill your ship for a month a week ago, Marduk?”  
“I. Uh…. I ate it all. Turns out Varrik’s Prison of Elders is really draining.”  
Ikora gives Marduk A Look.  
“I know, I know, deplorable and what not-- but it gives me strange coins and younever know what that weirdo Xur is going to have. Now, if you don’t mind, I gotta leave and draw that image for you. I’ll have my ghost send it to yours when I’m done.”

Marduk hastily retreats, Spektar robes flapping behind her as she maybe runs out of the tower.  
Two hours and a few minutes later, Marduk is sitting on the edge of the Reef’s main platform, sketching what she’d seen in that other place on a tablet her ghost had made with four of it’s triangle thingies. She was sitting cross-legged, the stick she uses as a pen in her mouth as she adds background colours with swipes of her finger.

There’s a familiar set of hisses, and a hint of green in the corner of her eye. “Varrik! How’s the day going with you?”  
“It is going well, Guardian. How… What, are you drawing?” The Fallen’s sentence ends with a familiar breathy clack.  
“Some other world my mind ended up in. Is your Prison of Elders doing well?”  
“Quite. Many enter, but few still win. You Guardians… Several give up once it starts getting hard.”  
“To be fair, Noru’usk is a bit bullshit. And this is a person who punches those bosses of yours in the face for fun speakin’.”  
That gets a small chuckle out of the lone member of House Judgement.

“Will you challenge again, Marduk?”  
“In a while, yeah. I gotta finish this first and then I’m gonna nap for a bit-- out of the Reef, don’t worry there. Learned my lesson from last time.” The stick is finally taken from her mouth, light grey lines of the ship’s outline starting to be scratched over the background of black and green.  
Varriks seems pleased with the Warlock’s response, and walks back over to his usual place of residence.

Six hours and four cans of soda later, Marduk has the image done. She tells her ghost to send it off, picks up her cans, gets back to her ship, and sets it to jump to Saturn’s rings. After that, she goes to the back and crashes in the small corner of the ship she’s made a bedroom of sorts. It’s not long before she’s snoring, hands twitching in her sleep.

And in her sleep, she dreams.  
She dreams of the Void.  
\---------------------------------------------  
Glace knows they’re sleeping, but they open their eyes and see the void. That shouldn't be happening. It should be the inside of the Somatic Link chamber, or what’s around their current frame. Not the void-- Oh god, the void!?

Glace panics, and in their panic their Etherical form changes from Tenno to Frost Prime, with Odonata Prime as their Archwing. Mind soothed through familiar things, Glace takes the time to look around wherever they are.

“Ey? You’re that armor-thing I saw in that mantis ship over there. What’re you doing out?”  
Glace whips around, Onorix suddenly in their hand. The being-- no, Marduk, ‘leaps’ back, a heavy machine gun appearing in her hands.

“...Sorry. You spooked me.” Glace states, sheathing the large axe in their Arcwing. “You’re Marduk, right? I'm Glace, the being you saw in the ship.”

“Oh, so you were the armor, and not the kid?”

“I'm both. I'm the kid, it's just that I spend most of my time remote controlling one of my frames. Er, armor suits. Could you put that gun away?”  
“What? Oh, er, sorry. Kinda forgot I had it out….” 

Marduk relaxes her arms, and the gun fades away. “So, uh. Nice to meet you, Glace! I’m guessing I’m somehow in another world.” The guardian holds out a hand.  
“Considering what I saw from your mind, yes, you are.” Glace just stares at the hand, confused.  
“Y’all don’t got handshakes in your world?”  
“Oh, we do, I’m just. Not used to someone offering me one.” The Tenno reaches out and shakes Marduk’s hand.

“Wow your hands are cold.”  
“It’s the frame that does it. This is Frost Prime, and his skills are all ice related.”  
“That would do it. I only have three, er… suits of armor, you could say. Oh, we should probably compare how fighting works first-- I both know that we’ve seen glimpses of each other in combat. I’ll go first!”

Marduk flops back in the air as though she had flopped into a beanbag. “I’m a Guardian, specifically a Warlock. I’m basically a space wizard. I can fling tiny black holes from my hands, fill myself with the sun’s light, or just float around the place shooting people with lightning from my goddamn hands. Each of those ‘classes’ also have a unique grenade skill. I, uh. Mainly use the first and last one. I can’t wrap my mind around the sun things.”

Glace nods at the explanation, their projected spirit turning into some odd hybrid between Tenno and Frame. “I am a Tenno, an ancient warrior of gun and blade. The frames I mentioned are my ‘classes’, I guess. Uhh, there’s like…. twenty-ish of them that I know of and each only has four skills. All have the same method of basic mobility, but all of them have different strengths. Frost here is a tank, he can take hits and dish out decent damage with his skills-- but he’s really slow unless modded to be faster.”

“Modded?” Marduk tilts her head, resting her jaw on a gloved fist. The shoulder plate on her coat…. Twitches a bit, reminding Glace of the Infested. Their Lex Prime appears in their hand, a finger resting over the trigger. “Yeah, modded. Seein’ as frames and weapons are made with a decent chunk of digital tech, with specific ‘data cards’, or mods, we can tweak how a gun or frame acts. Frost here usually runs slower than average, but since I tweaked them with the “Rush” mod, he can run faster than average.”  
“That sounds like a recipe for mass carnage.” Marduk states. “And hey, could you put that pistol away? It looks damn intimidating, I’d put it up there with my Hawkmoon.”  
“...It’s your shoulder plate’s tendrils, sorry. It reminds me of the Infested, a force of nightmares and pure instincts.”  
“Really? Lemme solve that, then.” Marduk snaps her fingers, and the gloves/shoulder plate are gone. “Better?”  
“Yes, thank you.” The Lex Prime vanishes from Glace’s hand.

“What is this Hawkmoon you mentioned, Marduk?”  
“That? Oh, it’s my main weapon! She’s a beaut of a handcannon, when I get one of Ace shots, I can take the head off a taken at like thirty meters!”  
“Ace shots?”  
“Oh, a random two outta thirteen shots in a round do extra damage.”  
“That seems useful. Is that a mod?”  
“Nope, it’s built into the gun. It’s the power of Exotic gear, Glace! It does freaky shit that’s hella useful in the right instances. For example, the helmet I got lets my melee attack drain life with every hit when I’m using the ‘fling actual black holes at people’ class. It’s fun, when you’re not fighting for your life.”  
Glace tilts their own head, not quite mirroring Marduk’s pose. “That’s… interesting, actually. Depending on my frame, I get access to skills like that, but otherwise I’m out of luck. I mainly rely on my main weapon and my melee weapon. Both of them have served me well for a long time.”  
“Tell me about your guns, then! I told you about my precious child!”  
“...You’ve got an odd way of speaking, but sure. The main weapon I use is a rifle in the Latron Prime model. The Latron is a single-shot rifle with not the best damage. The Prime variant I have has been modified to fire corrosive rounds, have a high chance for multi-bullet-shots, and has generally increased damage outputs.”  
“Good god your mods are ridiculous. Now I want to get my hands on them and see if I can get ‘em to work with my guns!”  
“Well, we could experiment and see if this space is more of a shared mental or physical realm. If we can summon our tools, I should be able to summon some extra mods. I have several copies of useful tweaks that I think would be useful for your side-arm.”  
“Hawkmoon ain’t a side-arm, man. It’s my main gun!”  
“S-seriously? That hand cannon has got to pack a serious punch.”  
“It does indeed~!”

Glace finally completely relaxes, falling back into a true Tenno appearance. “In that case, I know the best place to start-- the Serration mod. It’s an overall damage increase. I’d also recommend Multi-shot and Heavy Caliber as well. The first adds a chance for multiple bullets, and the second adds even more damage at the cost of accuracy-- but for single-shot weapons like hand cannons and the Latron, it’s not too bad a trade off.”  
Their grin starts growing. “I’d say also add generic crit damage increase and crit chance as well. In fact-- here! I have an extra copy of all those mods.” They toss a package of chits to Marduk. “Although, I am not certain how you would add them.”  
“Hey, I dabble with tinkering in my spare time. I’m sure I can figure something out.” Marduk responds, snagging the package. “Y’want anything in exchange?”  
“Mmmm. That music you were playing when we ran into each other. It was pleasant.”  
“That’s all? Alright.” Marduk materializes a USB and chucks it to Glace. “If ya got USBs, this should be all ya need.”  
“If not, I can find a way. I have an AI for a reason.”  
“I like ya, Glace. You appear to be a pretty chill dude.”  
“Indeed. If this place is a realm in which goods can be exchange, perhaps I can pull myself into your world, or vice versa-- not without suitable experiments, of course.”  
“Indeed! I’ll lend ya a hand when I can! For now, I think I hear my Ghost about to taser me awake again-- it could just be me imagining things tho---” And Marduk is gone.  
Glace blinks a few times. “Huh.”  
...Might as well make use of this waking dream to meditate.  
\----------------------------------------  
Marduk lies twitching on the floor of her ship. A few gurgled words slip out of her mouth in that odd harsh language once more.  
“Why, Ghost. Hwhy.”  
“Your heart had stopped again. And you appeared to be translucent.”  
“Transwha now?”  
“Translucent, Marduk.” Ghost beeps a bit. “You appear to have increased in weight. That should be impossible.”  
“Holy crap it was some sorta cross dimensional space. Oh! Pockets!” The guardian turns out the few pockets she’s sewn into her Spektar robes, and a few chits clatter down on the ground. She eagerly scoops them up and retreats to a small area in the storage bay of her currently-used ship. There’s a table set up, and the chits are dumped on it, along with Hawkmoon.  
A deep cackle rises up in her throat.  
“Um, Marduk?”  
“Not now! I got tinkering to do! Save a backup state of Hawkmoon, will ya?”  
“Oh dear god, not again……” Ghost beeps a few times, noting the state of his Guardian’s prized Handcannon.

Marduk snags a handful of wires and various bits of scrap metal-- some extra bits are pulled out as well. Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, Relic Iron, and a few Spirit Blooms as well. The cargo bay of the ship is soon filled with the sounds of tinkering.  
And soon with the sounds of screaming.  
“WHY THE FUCK DO ONLY THE TWO MODS WORK?!?!?!?”  
It seems the Warlock’s plans are not as fruitful as she’d expected.


	2. 2- That Chapter With a Chunk of Game Lore in it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically lore/plot details for both games. Feel free to skim through it for the one action part, if character interactions discussing easily found information is not your thing.

Glace blinks. In just a moment, Marduk had vanished. Instantly gone from this dream that was more like one of Limbo’s rifts torn open, frozen in time, and turned into some sort of gathering space. Huh.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
Waking up from being conked out on the floor in their Orbiter’s cockpit was nice, and unpleasant. Nice, because Glace’s little Kavat kitten Skyslasher was sleeping on their chest. Not so nice because something was jabbing their lower back quite painfully.

“Operator! You’re back to normal! Thank heavens, I was about to contact Simaris and see if he knew anything about-- YOUR PHASING OUT OF REALITY-- your odd state.” The Cephalon’s slight glitch wakes the kitten up, resulting in claws digging into Glace’s suit. Ow, yeah, those were still really darn sharp!  
“Ordis, quiet down, you’re making Skyslasher spooked!”  
“Oh. My apologies, Operator, I was just greatly worried about your situation.”  
Glace blinks a few times, trying to clear her vision from the dregs of sleep. Huh. It’s not-- oh. Occulus, where are their occulus? The Kavat has them.  
Some soft ear scratches get the kitten to let them go. After brushing off the kitten drool, Glace places them back on their face.  
There’s a small click as they magnetize to the somatics running under their skin. There. Now to focus on waking up, and what the heck Ordis was talking about.  
...And to give Skyslasher all the pets his face can handle.  
Okay, also to see what the heck was stabbing their lower back. Oh-- it’s that USB drive Marduk gave them. That set-aside Limbo conversation room idea was holding more water….  
After stuffing the storage device into the neck of their suit, Glace moves so that they’re leaning against the side of the navigation console, staring out the left side of the main windows. “Alright, I’m a bit more awake now. What the heck are you talking about when you said ‘phasing out of reality’?” As they talk, Skylsasher pads over and resumes napping on Glace’s lap.  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
“...So you’re saying, that while I slept, an energy signature wrapped me up and partially phased me out of this reality? Like Limbo’s banishment skill, but not with that specific energy frequency?”  
“That is correct, Operator. It is a very unique frequency, but I have not been able to decipher it yet. Given about twenty more hours of observation, I should be able to replicate it. I worry it was harmful to you, though.”  
“It wasn’t. Your observations on a similarity to Limbo are accurate. It was some sort of shared dream-scape, if that makes sense. A sort of private rift that only a few people have access to-- both for sight and other interactions with the senses.”  
“Fascinating. And you are unharmed?”  
“Completely fine. I brought something back from there, too. This storage device thing. Can you do anything with it?”  
“Hmm….” There’s only the humm of the ship, and the purring of a Kavat, as the Cephalon thinks. “I have nothing in my memory of such a connection device. Sudra might know.”  
“Hn. To the Orcus relay then, wrath of Keyla de Thaym me damned.”  
“We will arrive in fifteen minutes, operator. I recommend returning to the Somatic Link.”  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
Diplomacy with Sudra results in the following information: Sudra does have a way to convert the analogue external data storage device into something Cephalons can use. It just requires components from Sedna. Great. Back into the fire Glace goes.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
The grate of the target ship in Sedna, Kappa section is kicked in. Glace, using their Ivara, drops in. They’ve ended up in a crouch in a dead end somewhere near the port side of the ship. Their quiver skill is quickly toggled to Dashwire, and the tenno moves out.

With only a few arrows fired from their Dread, they get to point Alpha. Okay, that’s a minor lie, an Eviscerator had turned just in time to take an arrow with his arm, letting him alert the last Lancer in the room. Glace had severed them in twain with their Orthus Prime before the alarms had been triggered, and no other Grineer were in the area to be attracted by what bullets were fired.  
That and in the very next room another Lancer had turned just in time to see an arrow fly past them. Shoot. Glace was better at charging in head first and just tanking everything. Stealth was not their strongest skill….

Alpha point. One of those rooms with a buttload of conveyer belts. And those stupid floaty sensor drones.  
Nothing a practical abuse of Prowl can’t solve. Some quiet footsteps and one instance of pickpocketing later, Glace has snagged the point’s data. With only the hint of an alarm going off at the end. Turns out those bar sensors can see past Ivara’s invisibility.  
The Arson Eximus in the room looks around briefly, Grakata at the ready. After three tense seconds, he lowers the gun and resumes patrol.  
Glace walks right past him and two Arson Eximus Rollers and right out the door.

On the way to point Beta, a hapless Ballista takes a well-aimed arrow that splits her in two, and a storage locker drops an Amber Ayatan star.  
Once back in the room where that Lancer had seen an arrow fly past his face, Glace bullet-jumps to the top of one of the massive cannons in the room. The hallway to point Beta was right across from them-- and no one ever looked up. 

And then since one darn heavy gunner saw them, they have to break out the Hikou Prime and shuriken an entire room of Grineer to death. Thankfully, still no alarms. Somehow. If Kayla de Thaym learned they were here, this’d turn into a shitshow…..

Point Beta makes them grin. It’s the large pit room, one of the first Grineer data-bank storage sites they’d ever figured out. This would be easy. But first, a bit of a wait while their energy refills. After Prowling past the sensor drones, a simple jump and glide get them over the gap. Data Point Beta is extracted without a hitch.

And now onto Gamma. Er, point C. Technically they were all just ‘point insert-letter-here’, but in Glace’s mind it helped to give them a bit more details. And for some reason, to them, after Alpha and Beta came Gamma. Whatever, this is not the place to ponder one’s thoughts. Get Data Point C/Gamma first, then after getting out meditate on your thoughts.

Glace Prowls most of the way to C. About ten Grineer soldiers would be missing their pocket’s contents, five have plans to report of ‘mysterious forces’ knocking them over, and another three feel a ghostly chill crawl over their spines.  
The last two are due to Glace’s Wyrm Prime.

Of course, everything can’t go to plan. At C, another of those conveyer rooms (Wow do they hate those things) a wayward laser flicker catches them mid jump. The alarms blare, and the entire room kicks into high gear. Swearing under their breath, Glace utilizes Prowl once again-- and a series of quick rolls-- to get to the door entering the storage room.  
The goddamn display is glitchy. Glace manages to get through it, but there’s only ten seconds left before the data is erased.  
Good thing Glace is highly skilled at cracking Grineer encryption. With three seconds left, the data is extracted. The Tenno books it, dashing out of the room though the door that had just opened. No one had seen them, thank the Lotus….

Time to get out of here. They’ve got the data for Sudra, the only thing between them and freedom is a few corridors full of hopefully still-ignorant Grineer.  
“MEN! CAPTURE THAT TENNO AT THE COST OF YOUR HEADS! I AIN’T BEEN STUCK IN THE MEDICAL WINGS FOR NOTHING!” A low growl emanates over the local speakers. “I WANT THAT TENNO BOUND AND FORCED INTO MY ARENA! I WON’T LOSE A SECOND TIME!”

Oh.

Fuck.

It was Kela de Thaym. Fuck them…. She sounded pissed, too. Guess all that combat training made it worth bringing her back from the dead. Just great….. Glace sticks her head out around a corner to a once-abandoned, dark hallway-- and about a thousand assorted bullets are fired at her head. Grakkatas, Vulkars, Gorgons-- Christ almighty that was a lot of bullets.  
Wait.  
Who the hell was Christ? No, no, later. Escaping the shitload of bullets and invigorated Grineer first.  
Does she have enough energy for Prowl? Not really. Luckily they have some of those energy-restore disk things on them. Glace hunkers down and slaps three of them on the ground. Time for a waiting game.

...A short one, seeing as loud footsteps were heading their direction. Fuck’s sake, the boss lady was heading out herself?

“I KNOW YOU’RE THERE, TENNO. SHOW YOUR FACE, UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE BOMBARDED BY ROCKETS!”  
Shiiiiiiiit, she was here. Fuck them…! Time to engage in…. PROVOKING THE HORNET’S NEST!  
“What, you want another ass-beating? I thought one was enough for you!”  
There’s a loud clang as one of Kela’s fists is driven into the wall of the ship.

“THIS ISN’T ABOUT THAT! YOU DISHONORED ME. IN FRONT OF THE QUEENS, NO LESS!”  
“Wait, they were watching that? Oh man, they must’ve been pissed at your defeat!”  
“TENNNOOOOOOOOOO!” Kela is thoroughly pissed. She’s snapped, and is now sprinting towards the corner.  
“Nice talking to you. Gotta go, crazy lady!” Glace activates Prowl once more, and with a full energy bar it’s going to last a while. They roll out of the way of Kela’s charge, letting her slam into the wall where they had been. Seeing no Tenno beneath her, she lets out a gut-wrenching scream.

Glace, tempting fate more than they already were just by staying there, edges closer. A hand snakes forwards, reaching into a small pocket they’d spotted just under one of Kela’s shoulder pad things. They manage to snag… a handful of Orokin cells. “Man, you carry fuck-all with you, huh?” The Tenno backflips and keeps rolling out of the way as Kela takes a swing at the voice coming from behind her.

“THAT TENNO IS STILL HERE! FIRE, MEN!”  
All guns start blaring-- after Glace is past them all. They just make a raspberry sound over Ivara’s speakers and run for it, Prowl fading in a heartbeat.  
“BEHI-- STOP FIRING AT ME, THE TENNO IS BEHIND YOU! AFTER THEM!” Kela screams.

Glace may be madly cackling the entire time they run for the extraction point. They’ve still got the energy, so Ivara’s Artemis Bow is brought out. Several barrages of energy arrows are sent behind them as they dash their way to the extraction point.  
They slide backwards into their drop ship, and seeing as Kela is behind them but unable to catch up…. Well, Glace just flips her a bird.  
The ship pulls away as Kela lets out another deathly scream, bracing herself against the draw of the vacuum of outer space on a doorway.

“Operator, you-- ARE COMPLETELY INSANE-- amazing even when dealing with an enraged opponent.”  
“I can’t feel my heart. Should be I be able to feel my heart? I can’t feel it oh gods.”  
“It is probably the adrenaline rush.”  
“I’m…. gonna go lie down for a while….”  
“A good idea. Using maximum stealth protocols it will take two hours to return to a relay.”  
“Noted.”

Glace releases the connection to their frame, and rises once more. Their hands are trembling non-stop. Sheeesh…. Some stumbling later, they get to the ramp up to the Orbiter’s cockpit. The ramp doesn’t lower, and Glace presses on a side panel that’s a bit obscured by some cabling. A panel slides open, revealing a room.  
It doesn’t have much room, but it’s enough for Glace. There’s a hammock filled with furs and blankets hanging across the room, and the Tenno flops into it. The panel half-slides shut, cutting out some of the light.  
The young being burrows into the warm blankets and slowly, ever so slowly, drifts off to sleep. The dull hum of the engines calm them down.

And as they dream, they slide back into the Void. The calm, sea-green of a space between all spaces. Seeing as Glace’s heart is still pounding at a thousand miles an hour, they close their eyes once more and crosses their legs. The Tenno rises, evenly paced breaths settling their pulse.  
The meditation is perfectly peaceful. Well, until a quickly-becoming familiar voice butts in.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Glaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace, your mods don’t woooooork!” Marduk whines, flopping in front of the Tenno in their somehow-spared dream space.  
“...First, why are you doing that, second, that’s odd. It should work, in theory. Third, this is only the second full time we’ve talked to each other. How are you already so relaxed with me?”  
“Wait, theory?”  
“Until you bumped into my ship I was uncertain if other dimensions existed. And you still haven’t answered my third question.”  
“Oh. And as for the relaxed thing, I trust you an’ you don’t seem like a bad person. Besides, you’re just a kid.”  
“Don’t call me kid. I’m several centuries old, even if I was in the Dream for most of them.”  
“I’m a few thousand years old. I spent most of them dead. And what the hell is the Dream?”  
Glace looks away. “...I don’t trust you enough to tell you that yet.”  
“Fair enough. Anyways, only that fire an’ elec mod worked on Hawkmoon. Probably because they translate to elements in my world, Solar and Arc.”  
“You only have two elements?”  
“Four. The other two are Void an’ good old Kinetic. I guess ya got more elements than that?”  
“Three primary. Three secondary. Three tertiary.”  
“That’s a lot.”  
“They all have their uses. I’m fond of blast and corrosive, myself.”  
“Ooooh, that first one sounds like explosions!”  
“It is. It makes things pretty ridiculous at times.”

A small smile grows on Glace’s face. “One time I shot a Corrupted Grineer in the head and he just went flying right into the ceiling of the Orokin hall I was in. And those things are really far up there.”  
“That sounds glorious--! Oh, oh, how much speed did he have when he hit it?”  
“Quite a lot. If it had been in an open area, I’m not certain how far he would have flown.”  
“Man, I wish I could get that in my world. The best I got is jackasses dying to sword slashes an’ getting chucked far away.”  
“Oh. I didn’t know your world has swords…! Any interesting ones?”  
“I only got the one at the moment. They’re kind rare.”

Marduk holds out a hand, and a sword that appears made of stars appears in it. “This is Voidfang. It deals void damage. I got it from Varrik in a trade. It’s pretty bad-ass, but I haven’t filled it with light yet. So it ain’t got all it’s perks yet. I can’t guard, it doesn’t hold much ammo--”  
“Wait, that sword has ammo?”  
“Well, it’s more like energy charges. Each swing takes one, but it’s a three-swing combo and the thing is stupidly strong. Probably why it counts as a heavy weapon.”  
“It would be a melee weapon in this world. I don’t think we have many ‘heavy weapons’.”  
“How do you live with no variety in explosions?”  
“That’s your worry? I survive with lots of Blast damage and what I like to call ‘popcorn grenades’, or grenades that explode into smaller grenades.”  
“THOSE ARE MY FAVORITE THINGS!” Marduk bellows, suddenly looming there over Glace.  
Glace releases a tiny squeak and is replaced by Frost Prime-- with Marduk directly in the frame’s chest.

“...Your golem thing smells weird.”  
“Probably the machine oil. The Corpus were the last beings I fought with Frost and I haven’t had the time to clean the residue off.”  
“Thought it smelled like a Fallen Ketch.”  
“Ketch…?”  
“Spaceships ranging from large to fucking massive. I think they look kinda like sailboats from Old Earth pre-Golden age.”  
“Hm. I don’t even know what a sailboat is….”  
“It’s a boat that travels with large sheets of canvass called sails.”  
“Huh.”

Marduk shifts so that she’s splayed across Frost’s lap. “The insides remind me of what I saw of those… Grineer, was it? Yeah, the Grineer. Just more variety in the interior colours, depending on who owned the Ketch.”  
“Hm. Interesting… although, I must ask, why have you decided to lie splayed across my legs like this?”  
“‘Cause you’re floating an’ they make a good lounge. Especially with how spikey the knees are, it’s basically a headrest for me.” Marduk responds, promptly flopping even lower just to show her point.  
“You’re truly an odd being.”  
“As are you, Glace!” The Warlock replies, grinning up at the possessed golem.

There’s silence for a while as Glace tries to meditate with Marduk on their lap. It ends up failing as before long Marduk is poking their-- well, Frost’s face. “What is it, Marduk?”  
“Is all you do meditate?”  
“No. But at the moment, I am in an attempt to calm my heart down..”  
“What from?”  
“Keyla De Thaym and the fact she is still infuriated at me for humiliating her in combat and fucking up her RATHUUM arenas.”  
“That sounds fun! What’s this Rathuum thing?”  
“RATHUUM. It has to be emphasized. The Grineer are brutes, after all. Their Queens are probably worse.”  
“They got queens? Huh, nice to see a matriarchal villain society. All the guys in my world are males, probably.”  
“Probably?”  
“No one has any idea who the fuck runs the Cabal. An’ technically the leader of the hive used to be female before bullshit.”  
“...Your world is weird.”  
“Not as weird as yours!”  
“They’re weird in their own ways.”

Glace shrugs, finally agreeing with Marduk. The Warlock just sits up in the other’s lap, and looks at her with glowing eyes. “Let’s play a game, while we’re here!”  
“What do you want to play?”  
“Umm… A game from your world, if you have any!”  
“...I guess there’s Lunaro…? But that’s usually six people.”  
“Who cares, let’s have a one-on-one match! Friendly sparring is how I get to know someone the best! Besides, just meditating for too long leaves you in weird moods.”  
“Fine, fine, I guess you have a point….” Frost’s shoulder vents puff out a larger than usual plume of frigid air-- the closest to a sigh the golem can get. “If all of you ‘Guardians’ are like this, though, you’re an odd bunch.”  
Marduk cackles and stands up. “Not all of us are like this! Some of them are real sticks in the mud, others are serious yet caring. ‘Course I’m thinking of the three heads of our group, but still.”  
“Tell me about them?”  
“Only in exchange for info about yours!”  
“...That’s fair, I guess. It’s highly improbable that you’ll end up here, or vise versa.” Glace slowly stands up, their frame creaking just a bit. The Warlock that was on their lap flops to the ground, but quickly hops up onto her feet.

Marduk starts speaking. “Well, first there’s Zavala. He’s the boss of the Titans, the tanks of the Guardians. They shield us, can take a lot of hits, and if need be they can duke it out with the fury of a thousand suns. Zavala himself is a bit of a stick, though-- always follow the rules, take no risks where Guardians might die, that general type of character. His heart’s in the right damn place, though.”  
As she speaks, a statuesque render of the man appears behind her.

Glace tilts their head. “He’s blue? The heck happened to your humans?”  
“How’d you know that?”  
“Behind you.”  
“Huh-- oh! That’s handy. But yeah, that’s Zavala. He’s an Awoken, a human touched by the Darkness.”  
“The hell’s the Darkness?”  
“Crap if I know. I haven’t gotten to that part in my own meditations anyways. Anyways, next is Cayde-6!”

A blue and gold horned robot appears before the two, in a rather relaxed pose compared to Zavala. Heck, the statue of Cayde is leaning back in a chair. “He’s an Exo. They’re super-advanced robots built pre-collapse that have their own minds-- and I’d say their own souls. Cayde’s super care-free, and would rather be out on the field working. He’s the leader of the Hunters, the more stealthier of the three branches. They can blast people from afar with their Solar and Void sub-classes, the first granting a sun-powered gun and the latter a bow that fires void energy at ‘em. Their last branch lets them go invisible and stab everything with arc energy. I saw a newish Hunter manage to shank like, ten dregs to death the other day in one go.”

“That… sounds very useful. But what about you, Marduk? You don’t seem to be either of those.”  
“Right you are! I’m a Warlock, a goddamn space-wizard of badassery and whatnot! My boss is Ikora Rey, the one girl in the group and she’s terrifying.”  
A dark-skinned woman appears in purple robes, a soft grin on her face. Honestly, she kinda reminds Glace of Lotus.  
“She’s super calm, but at the same time can be snarky and tends to mediate things between Cayde and Zavala. But she also gets super excited over discovering new things, in either her usual subtle manner or an overly excited one that’s pretty rare.”

“She seems nice.” Glace comments. “But what about your skills?”  
“Well, like the other two, we got a solar, void, and arc sub-class. The Solar one makes the least sense to me-- it’s the closest to a white mage we got. Er, a combat healer, basically. Honestly, it’s the class I’m the least skilled at. I understand the whole ‘fill yourself with the sun’s light and warmth’ thing, but I can’t get the knack of using it as a healing thing. The most I can do is make myself glow, really.” A huff from the Guardian.  
“The two classes I understand are Voidwalker and Stormcaller. Stormcaller lets me bring the thunder down on people by ‘trancing’ out and channeling pure lightning through my body. I get to float around the place frying people to death with electricity from my hands! Also got the option to punch people with a palm full of lightning that chains to other dudes. And a lightning grenade that flashes between targets.”

“That sounds a lot like my Volt frame. What of this Voidwalker class, though?”  
“Voidwalker lets me chuck actual black holes at people! It lets me utilize the nova bomb, which drops a voracious black hole on the field. Although I’ve tweaked mine so it splits in three and homes in on people before exploding~!”  
“Whifty. Far more useful than Limbo.”  
“I can also steal people’s souls to refill my health. And throw a popcorn explosive comprised of entirely void energy.”  
“I want both of those skills. Although-- grenades? I’m familiar with them, but I haven’t seen them around for years.”  
“Seriously?”  
“Not hand-thrown ones. Gun-launched ones, yes, but not hand-thrown. The Grineer use various grenade launchers pretty often.”  
“Those russian-sounding dorks?”  
“Russian…?”

Marduk clears her throat. “Да, русский”  
“That does sound a bit like them. I think the Grineer are more corrupted English, though.” Glace rests a hand on their chin. “I guess that this Russian is a human language?”  
“Yep! Old Earth, but still used quite a bit as the Cosmodrome is an important strategic area, ditto the Plaguelands beyond.”  
“Plaguelands. Guess you have your own to deal with too, then.”  
“Geez, is a widespread plague a requirement in every world?”  
“We have only seen two, so we cannot pass judgement yet.”  
“Hmmm….” Marduk rests her hands behind her head, thinking. If the plagues their two worlds had were a thing, then inter-dimensional travel might be risky. Although SIVA didn’t really reproduce itself, it was still a tricky customer-- and who knew about whatever Glace’s mess was.

That can be worried about later though. “I told you ‘bout my bosses, you tell me about yours. And after that, this Lunaro thing you mentioned!”  
“Alright, alright. I’ll start with the forces that we oppose. But we should sit down, as it might take a while. And I probably have to fake a few things as we don’t know everything about everyone.”  
“Deal.”

Glace flops down again, the “face” of Frost leaning against a curled fist. “Since we were talking about plagues, let’s start with mine. The Infested, in two varieties: screw all your life things and screw all your everything versions. The latter was developed by a dickhead of a Corpus, but I’ll talk about him later.”  
Glace glances off to the side. If Marduk summoned images of her bosses, then…. After a bit of focus, an infested charger appears. “This is one of the basic members they have. It’s a charger. The infested are a hive-mind, all acting as one. We dunno where the heart of them is, if there’s a heart.” The charger fades, and four more massive beings appear. Glace points to the smallest.

“This is the Juggernaut. It’s a dick. But the most common of the more powerful Infested to spawn. It’s only weak in that glowy pink spot on it’s underside.”  
Glace moves onto the next one.  
“That’s Phoroid. He spawns decently often, and unlike the Juggernaut this jackass can just be riddled with bullets. Phorid likes stunning it’s opponents with loud-ass screeches and homing mental bolts that skip shields and go right for your health.”  
The next Infested pointed two is some three-headed monstrosity.  
“That’s Lephantis. Only weak when parts of the heads open up and show the weak neon pink flesh. I have no idea why the neon pink parts are the weak parts. Its stomps can cause shockwaves that knock you over and it fills the arena with pools of electricity-laced water. Those things really pack a shock.”

A small snigger escapes Marduk.

“So you like bad puns, huh?”  
“M-maybe.”  
“Noted.”

Glace points to the last Infested giant, the largest of the bunch. “That’s the Jordas Golem, sometimes called the J-3 Golem. The bastard is so large it has to be fought with Archwings, devices that allow us all-degree combat capability in zero gravity.”  
“Whifty. Next time we end up sharing this place I’ll ask you more about those Archwings. What else is in your world?”

“The Grineer.” The projections of the Infested fade, to be replaced by two tall and intimidating-- but female-- shadows. “They’re lead by two queens, but we know fuck-all about them, including where their base is. Whoever they are, their rule is absolute. There’s also a few notable members in the Grineer court.”

Six figures appear. One a man with a gold something over his heart, the other a heavily armored brute with a hammer, a floating head attached to a bright yellow flying drone thing, a man with his eyes covered but who has multiple flamethrowers, a teal giant with peg legs and a inquisitive glare that pierces the white mask he wears, and an intimidatingly tall woman with eyes that burn amber and shoulder pads so impressive they might make people cry.  
“Left to right, they’re Captain Vor, Lieutenant Lech Kril, Councilor Vay Hek, General Sargas Ruk, Tyl Regor, and Kela de Thaym.”  
“The crazy lady you pissed off.”  
“Yep.”  
“I can see why you were meditating now. Who else is there besides the military nutjobs?”  
“Military…?” 

After a pause, Glace shakes their head and waves a hand. The Grineer fade, to be replaced by people a lot bluer than before.  
“Before you continue, I gotta ask you something.” Marduk interjects.  
“Hn? What is it?”  
“Why’re you showing my your enemies?”  
“Because I sometimes work for them.”  
“Might I ask why?”

Glace locks the closest things to eyes Frost has with Marduk’s. “Tenno do not work to make the world lighter. We work to make it balanced. There must be dark with light, and light with dark.”  
Marduk blinks a few times. “...A Neutral force then. Alright, I can work with that. So who are these blue dudes? And why does one of them have purple shit on his limbs?”

The Tenno stares at the purply Corpus for a while. “...I keep forgetting that dick isn’t partially infested anymore.” The purplely, fleshy mass fades from his limbs. “Anyways.”

Glace first points to a man with a blocky helmet accented with red markings. “That’s the Sergeant. He monitors the Solar Rails and tries to find fellow Tenno that are still sleeping, and then sells their cryopods off to the highest bidder. He’s minor compared to the others, and there’s whispers of someone higher in rank replacing him some day.”

A giant yellow quadruped robot is pointed to next. “That’s the Jackal. Kill the legs to kill the main body.”  
Then a trio of flying robots. “The Raptors. They kinda suck.”  
A group of four dog-like robots. “The Hyena Pack. They move fast and are irritating little bastards to deal with.”  
A black, bipedal robot with a massive laser gun thing for a head. “Ambulas. Bastard adapts to previous attacks, but has a weakness to code-based viruses. Come in long slogs of six to nine individuals in a row.”

Penultimately, the man who had been covered in purple earlier. “Alad V. The bastard takes Tenno and experiments on their frames an’ whatnot. Made the Zanuka project, robotic proxies like the Hyena Pack who are more sturdy than them, and bigger assholes over all. He also mutated the Technocyte plague into the ‘Screw your everything’ version.”  
A pause. “None of the Tenno really like him, so he somehow got the nickname Salad V. Probably because salad sucks.”

The last man is pointed to. The guy has a large beard that apparently lights up with roman numerals. And he has a stupid-ass outfit. Guy looks like a walking sign.  
“How the shit does that guy walk around?”  
“I have no clue. I’ve only ever seen him over short range transmissions. Pretty certain he just floats around on a platform.” A larger puff of chilled air leaves Frost’s shoulders.

“Anyways that’s Nef Anyo. He’s a con artist who’s on the Corpus board of directors. Not sure how he got there, but he runs the Index. Which is basically kill people, get points, score points, make the bastard lose money.”  
“Sounds fun!”

The Corpus fade away. “And lastly, there’s my boss. The boss of all Tenno-- the Lotus.”  
A very indigo lady appears. Her eyes aren’t visible, but there’s a soft smile on her face. Cables drape down from her headpiece, and what appears to be sheets seemingly flow from her shoulders. “She sounds a bit cold, but she’s really caring under it all. I’ve even heard some Tenno call her Space Mom.”  
“Space Mom?”  
“She acts like our mother, and we’re in space.”

Marduk narrows her eyes. “Y’all ain’t good at naming things, are ya?”  
“Seeing as we have a sniper rifle called Snipeton, yeah, naming isn’t our strong point….”  
“Is that a real thing?”  
“Yes.”  
“That’s impressive.”

The shared dream is filled with awkward silence.  
“...Your lotus seems like a really nice lady, though. That smile reminds me of Eva. She’s this wonderfully sweet old lady who runs a clothing shop in the tower. Sells shaders an’ emblems, and has a smile that could melt all the ice on Europa. Your Europa, I think. Dunno what mine looks like.”  
A chuckle leaves Glace. “Tell me about her while I try to set up a Lunaro court?”  
“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me forever to find out how to upload another chapter. Now I feel dumb as heck. Oh well~  
> Edit 1/27/18  
> I'm still alive damn it, Life is just being an ass at the moment. Crippling situational depression really kills the motivation to write, yaknow?  
> Chapter three is being edited, then I actually have plot for the next ~3 chapters. Thank y'all for your patience.


	3. A Friendly Spat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lunaro is played, rapid teleporting apparently results in dizziness, and Ordis gets hit in the face with the ball.

\---------------------------------------------------------------  
Chapter 3: A Friendly Spat  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
“...So when I was actually sick due to a cold and a few too many Vex lasers to the face, Eva just comes in one day with a bowl full of soup. All because I took a few hours out of my day to gather various resources for her! This, of course, means a polite-off.” Marduk punctuates the end of her statement with an over-dramatic clench of a fist over her heart.

“Dear heavens, a polite-off? Not to be rude by my money's on this Eva Levante. The truly kind ones have deep reserves of pure sweetness they can pull out on you on the last second.”  
“But she’s limited to the Tower and the Last City!”  
“Deep. Reserves. Of kindness. The truly kind have all sorts of hidden stashes full of politeness. At least, the few I've met in my world do-- Not that there’s many of those, these days.”

Marduk slides off the Lunaro goal she’d been sitting on for a while. Some sort of energy comes from the soles of her feet, slowing the fall. “Who’d be your world’s Eva Levante?”

Glace pauses, the blue colour spreading from Frost’s feet stopping. “Hm. No one as well known as Eva. It's just this sweet old lady on the Orcus Relay, out by Pluto. When I had to bring my Orbiter in for some modifications post-awakening, she saw me just sitting against a wall in the docks. She promptly brought me something she called dumplings and kinda stuffed them down my throat. Thing is, I hadn't realized how hungry I was until then!”

The Tenno chuckles. “Kinda ate the whole box after that. She refused payment for it, too-- said something about the fact I reminded her of a dead grandson. So next time I was in the Orcus Relay, I gave her a re-activated Ayatan Sculpture I'd found on a Corpus transport ship. She countered the favor with a warm blanket, of all things.”

“Pause! The hell is an Ayatan Sculpture?”  
“Ancient kinetic sculpture.”  
“Huh, whifty. Please resume!”

“So next I got her a Kubrow. To act as a guard dog. It took a long-ass time to tame a wild one. And she counters with one of the blueprints for a Prime Frame, of all things. It was at this point I gave up and settled with just visiting her from time to time, as per her request.”

“Uhh. Word. What's a Prime Frame?”  
“Oh. Er, they're stronger versions of regular frames. They can't exactly be recreated, and the Blueprints are one-time use.”  
“Oh, so they're like my world's Exotic gear. Noted.”

“You know, I still don't have her name. And she named the Kubrow Fluffykins. I respect and fear her, now.” Speaking done, Glace returns to adding colour to the mostly-completed Lunaro court.

“Fluffykins. She named a recently-feral dog thing Fluffykins.”  
“She managed to give him pink bows. I don’t know where she got the fabric, let alone the dye.”  
“I’m so gonna lose against Eva, aren’t I?” Marduk asks. “If an average citizen in your world can do that, then Eva can logically do a whole lot more.” A sigh. “Might as well fight a losing battle! Anyways, this Lunaro thing-- how d’ya play it?”

The Tenno reaches Frost’s arms in front of them, casually cracking borrowed knuckles. “Need to get the most points to win. Points are gotten by chucking the ball through the goal hoop. After a goal, the scoring team must get out of the coloured area.”  
Glace holds out their hands, and two metallic claw-like devices appear.

“These’re used to carry the ball. They’re called Arcatas. The ball can only be held for so long before overloading, making ya drop it. Certain vigorous movements will also dislodge the ball from the holder. You can check the opponent to make ‘em drop the ball, and certain gestures will temporarily make the holder produce a magnetizing field to draw the ball towards you.”

“That seems simple enough! So, please show me how t’ get this thing on and then it’s game time, I guess. Oh-- could I be on the blue team, though?”

That gets a chuckle from Glace. “Seeing as it'll be one-on-one and you’re the guest, sure. You can be the blue team.”  
“Sweeeeeeet.”  
The pair don their Arcatas, and stand on either side of the starting field.

“Two halves, three minutes each. Most points at the end, or first to twenty wins.”  
“This place looks kinda like the moon, the more I look at it.”  
“It is the moon. My moon.”  
“Huh. That’d explain all the gold and why there’s no Hive-green.”

The ball drops. Marduk snags it first, mainly because Glace let her. The Guardian books it down the court, Tenno hot on her heels. There’s the sound of rushing air, and a hint of cold runs down Marduk’s spine-- and Glace is suddenly in front of her, and charges in shoulder-first for a check.

The ball flies from Marduk’s Arcata, and she stumbles as she regains her footing. Glace is now in possession of the ball, and is sprinting down-court.  
“Certain rigorous movements, huh?” Marduk shouts.

She turns to follow. She hops into the air, then reaches forwards and pulls-- And she lands in front of Glace. A leg sweeps out as the Tenno passes, tripping them onto their face.  
“I AIN’T A SPACE WIZARD FOR NOTHING!” Marduk cackles, running back down the court.

The Tenno shakes their head, clearing the minor confusion in their head. Guardians teleport. Noted. They rise in pursuit of the Guardian.

Marduk smirks, then reaches forwards and pulls again. She has warped forwards, and is much closer to the goal. Two steps later she hears a clunk. The hell?

A glance backwards reveals that the ball has fallen out of the Arcata. It seems that teleporting cancels out the minor magnetism that holds the ball in place.

The Guardian waves her Artaca at the ball, trying to get that minor tractor beam of sorts to work on the damn thing. It clicks into her hand just as Glace slides towards her, changing their advancing slide into an offensive one in a split second.

Marduk jumps upwards then jumps again, slowly rising upwards in the air. This, somehow does not trigger the magnetism to break between ball and Arcata. Glace pauses in their pursuit, blinking on the inside of the frame. “Can guardians not leap again in the air?”

The now-descending Warlock takes this opportunity to draw back an arm, flinging the ball towards the goal. It sails though, causing a gong to echo around the arena. “Nope. Either use the Light to lift ourselves into the air or slow our fall, or teleport. Can’t both in the same leap.”  
“That seems wildly unuseful.”  
“Tell me about it. If I could figure out how, I’d get out of Dodge by just teleporting mid-air non-stop until I got to the evac point.”

A chuckle from Glace as Marduk pads out of her marked area. “It is effective, if one has the energy for it. Especially if one of said teleportations carries you clean across a large chasm.”  
“Those are the best!”  
Marduk is finally out of the area. Glace takes a breath in before picking up the ball with their Artaka and running for it.

They slide past Marduk, rolling the ball along the floor to reset it’s magnetic timer. The Guardian turns in pursuit, and starts skipping of all things. The reason for the skipping is revealed when Marduk starts warping forward decently faster than before. Although, after a few warps she stops and wobbles a bit.

“Dizziness is a waste of time on the gamefield, Marduk!” Glace drops to a slide, snagging the ball as they speed along. With a shift of their weight, and a swing of their arm, the ball is launched towards Marduk’s goal.

“HAAAAACKS!” The Guardian screeches, standing up and booking it down the field.  
This is when the air crackles a bit, and a cracked cube of sorts just appears in the cloudy sky above the field.  
“Operator! Are you in he--” And the ball promptly smacks the interrupting Ordis on their ‘body’.  
“...whAT IN THE HEAVENS WAS THAT?!?”  
“Holy crap, is that a talking cube?!”  
“AND WHO IN THE HELL ARE YOU?!?” Ooh, Ordis’ voice was definitely warping at the end of that query.

“Ordis! Down here. This is that ‘being of light’ I ran into about two days ago in the Void. And probably the reason behind why I’m partially fading out of what we know as reality in my sleep. Wait-- how’d you even get in here?”  
Ordis rotates a bit, looking away from Marduk to Glace.  
“Oh, Operator! You’re here!” The Cephalon floats downwards, pausing in front of his partner.  
“Yeah, I am. How’d you get in here, though?”  
“Ah, it was quite a fascinating puzzle! First of all, I had to backup my systems so the ship could continue to run while I was not completely present. Then after triple-analyzing and processing the odd frequencies you were giving off in your slumber, I projected a harmless beam of light towards you with similar energies and a small portion of myself. Then I found myself here, being assaulted by tHE MONSTER-- the odd being from the other day.”

Marduk blinks. “I feel like I should be insulted, but I'm just confused over the fact you look kinda similar to my own nagging AI.”  
“IT TALKS-- greetings, being. Might I ask your species?”

“Well, similar to my ghost aside from the glitching aggression. Um, anyways, I'm Marduk, A Human Guardian. Specifically a Warlock that specializes in the Voidwalker and Stormwalker sub-classes.”

“Pain focused Nova and pain focused Volt, Ordis.” Glace interjects.  
“I see. I am Ordis, ship Cephalon to Glace. My primary function is to maintain the safety of my assigned operator. A pleasure, Miss-- LIGHT DEMON-- Marduk.”

Marduk regards the Cephalon for a while. “Don't really appreciate being called a demon, but you seem pretty alright. ‘S nice to meet you, Ordis!” The Guardian bows towards the AI. “Oh-- and I wasn’t the one who threw that ball, it was Glace.”

“Operator!” Ordis sounds wounded at the revelation.  
Glace just shrugs. “How was I supposed to know you were about to appear there? I’m not clairvoyant.”  
“...A good point, Operator. My apologies for the outburst.”  
“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re my partner, after all.”

Ordis’ surrounding mini-cubes just spin around him slightly. “Operator, I should let you know that our journey to Orcus relay has been delayed. After your escape from Sedna, Keyla de Thaym has increased the guard around the solar rails. It shall take from ten more minutes to a whole day until we can slip through, depending on the flight schedules of the ships allowed through. There is also a message from Cressa Mal asking, and I quote ‘What the hell did you do this time, Tenno?’”

“Sheesh, I owe her some things after today…. Pretty certain my actions might have endangered some of her undercover ops….”  
“...Who’s Cressa Mal?”  
“Syndicate leader.”  
“Oh, like those guys who run Dead Orbit and the other things I ignore.”  
“I guess?”

“Miss… Marduk, yes? Would you mind if I ask about your world so I can catalog the information away? I am quite fond of learning new things, after all!”  
The Guardian shrugs. “Well, I already told Glace about my bosses, but I could tell y’all about who I have to fight.”  
“That would be marvelous! That way, in the unlikely event that BULL HAPPENS-- there is a shift in the apparently thin dimensional boundaries between our realms, we will not be in the dark regarding potential invaders.”  
“Well, I got no qualms in running my mouth! Let’s start with the primary assholes occupying my Earth, shall we?”

Marduk launches into an explanation of the foes in her dimensional plane. The four-armed, Ether breathing Fallen with their Houses and Kells, and the specific branch who had found ‘SIVA’ and started manipulating their bodies. The Hive with their Wizards and God-King Oryx, who could turn anyone into a member of the Taken, monstrous beings apparently comprised of pure void. The Vex with their time-manipulating hive mind, and massive robotic frames. The militaristic Cabal, and their powerful control over Mars.

Once Marduk gets to the explanation of where to shoot each of the individual species for massive damage, Glace starts falling asleep again. Before fading from consciousness once more, the last thing they hear is “And for those shielded assholes of the Cabal, shoot them in the hand first, that makes them drop that damn shield so you can go for the head.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE.  
> Situational depression is an ass.   
> Anyways, next three chapters are going to be covering The War Within, and I'm rapidly approaching the end of the first one.
> 
> Hopefully I won't be bogged down in my mind again so y'all can get your fic at a more reasonable pace.


	4. TWW, Act 1/3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are going well. Until they're not. How is a mountain in one's mind so cold, anyways?  
> For that matter why does Teshin's hat look like a frisbee? And also, he almost takes a bullet to the face.

\---------------------------------------------  
Chapter 4- The War Within, Act One.  
\---------------------------------------------

Eventually Glace gets back to the Orcus Relay. After a slow rising, the retrieved data from Sedna is presented to Suda. Suda fulfills her end of the bargain by paying Glace with the schematics for a data conversion terminal.

Glace then spends an entire week relaxing in the relay doing not much besides listening to the music from Marduk and visiting the old lady with the feral Kubrow named Fluffykins.

But time marches ever onwards, and Glace has to depart once more. Their Orbiter pulls out of the relay, and fades into the Void before sliding through one of Pluto’s Solar rails. The Lotus has given them a string of sabotage missions to act on.  
\------------------------  
Over at the Tower, Marduk is keeping herself busy with patrols of the various planets. And the Prison of Elders-- what can she say, it’s fun. Between patrols and prison runs, Marduk works with a tinkering project. Specifically, mashing Hive and Vex technology together with a dash of pure human stubbornness and ingenuity to make a trans-dimensional teleporter.  
It almost works, too.

And of course, She keeps sharing her dreams with Glace. Puzzling things out with Ordis-- and a very flustered Ghost-- had resulted in a decently substantial explanation of what the hell was going on.

It seems Marduk, with her tendencies to Trance while meditating, had somehow let her mind, her soul, you could say, slip through the barrier between her world and the Void that was just outside of Glace’s. When the two shocked each other by initial contact, that had solidified the bridge between the two planes.

Due to that, when one of them starts sleeping, a small pocket of protected space forms just off of both of their realms. If there were a way to stabilize it when neither of them were asleep, it would be theoretically possible to pull things from one world into the other.

Glace was too busy for that, so Marduk was hammering on it her side of their worlds. Theoretically, it was working just fine. It was just…. Missing something. She still wasn’t sure what.

This is why she was in the Tower’s Ship Bay, currently lending Amanda Holiday a hand. In exchange for helping her finish the day’s work load, the mechanic had promised to take a look at Marduk’s blueprints and calculations.

This is why the Guardian currently had her new Voidfang Vestments tied around her waist as she was taking a wrench to a particularly leaky fluid valve. Of course, she was wearing goggles and gloves. Didn’t help with the oil dripping down onto her arms, though.

Luckily, this was the last ship for the day. But it was a hell ship-- took quite a bit of fire from Cabal ballistics as the pilot had been sent on a scouting mission near Deimos. Amanda was still working on getting some of the shrapnel out from the more… explosive areas of the ship.

Marduk wraps a gloved hand around one of the shards and yanks it out. A splurt of oil leaks out and hits her in the face. The Guardian just growls at the ship and flips it the bird. As if to spite her, the ship horks out another glob of oil.

Amanda ends up laughing at the other’s misfortune. The Guardian responds with a blank stare. “Sorry, sorry, your face was just perfect. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone get so frustrated with a ship.”

“Well, sorry I’m a beginner at this.”  
“Nah, it’s not that. I’ve just been doing this for so long I’ve stopped sassing the ships. Some of them have a mind of their own, after all.”  
“Eh…. True, but it’s still mildly irritating.” Marduk picks up a rag and wipes at her face, taking away most of the spilled oil.  
“You get used to it after a while. That is, if you wanna help out more. You’ve done all I wanted from you today-- I can get the rest of this hell ship myself. Just couldn’t reach all of that shrapnell and get it out, you know?”

“...Yeah, I do. Some of those shells were in there pretty good, and were still solar-charged. I can see why you’d want a Warlock to yank ‘em out. Tools are still pretty hard to come by.”  
“Especially a good wrench or pair of pliers. So, what are these blueprints you want me to look at?”

Marduk grins, and pads over to where her Ghost is resting. Some pokes and a few words get a few pages of blue paper to materialize on Amanda’s desk. “There they are. I’ve got the energy supply and size figured out-- and all the maths behind it. I just can’t figure out what materials would work to contain that mess. I’m no metallurgist, after all, and in the entire City, you’re the closest to one. From what I can tell, anyways.”

Amanda leans over her desk, spreading out the blueprints and examining them with careful eyes. “Hmmm…. Pretty potent stuff here-- and this odd energy signature-- never seen it before. Where’d you find it?”  
“Another universe where I’m pretty certain I’ve become friends with a space ninja.”  
“Right, so either a Warlock thing, or you were high on Ether again. Possibly both.”  
“The sad thing is I only take mild offence to that.”

Queue A chuckle from the shipwright. “Well, for most of the components a copper an’ gold alloy would work-- maybe throw in some aluminium on the outside for durability, as that’s where the ‘Void’ energy would be. For these details here, and the portal crossbars, I’d say use a mix of gallium-brass, so it can carry some power but not all of it. As for these node points, and this is a vague guess-- some rhodochrosite might do the trick. The main problem is a coolant strong enough to keep the thing from melting the second it’s turned on, and something to cable that coolant about the place. If you did end up in another world, maybe try lookin’ there. They might have something we don’t.”

Amanda rolls up the blueprints and hands them back to the Ghost. The purple-shelled sprite dematerialized them back into their storage matrix. “But if you can find those, you should have your…?”

The Shiprwright turns around to see Marduk wobbling on her feet, a hand clasped to her forehead. “Hey, are you alright Marduk?!”  
“I, uh…. Dunno….. Feeling kinda… dizzy…..” The Guardian falls backwards onto the metal floor of the hangars, out cold.   
“Ghost, what’s going on?!”  
“Er, it seems to be something related to the Void energy signature-- for some reason there’s a spot of elevated heat on her forehead.”  
“Shit--- go get the med staff immediately! I’ll make sure she stays here!”

Ghost zooms off, heading for the hospital entrance. Amanda looks back at Marduk. The Guardian blinks a few times, flickering back into consciousness. And then, before Amanda can ask any questions-- she’s gone. Just gone.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Hours Earlier, Glace’s Universe, Clan Dojo Orbiting Mars, the Maple Tree Square  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Glace sits under a tree, meditating. Their frame rests in the pond surrounding the islands, awkwardly walked into the water as it was covered in Corpus blood and splats of fuel. The fish who lived in the pond seemed to be enjoying nibbling the grime off of the frame, and it was kinda funny to watch Frost just bob there.

At Ordis’ insistence, they have earpieces on for once. Mainly so that communication was privately maintained between Cephalon and Tenno.  
Not that there was anyone else in their clan, but still. It was polite to the plants if nothing else.  
A lightning bug lands on their forehead, and clambers up into their prisma-coloured hair.

“Operator, incoming transmission from the Lotus. She says it’s in relation to the sentinel disruption on Lua.”  
A screen opens up in the air before them, the Lotus standing there and staring at them with her hidden eyes. “Tenno, I require your assistance. After sending in a squad to find the reason behind my sentinels going dark, it appears that Teshin has gotten involved with the Grineer Queens.”

“Huh. So those ladies are real?” A smaller screen appears, another Tenno in the image.   
“Seein’ as I heard some whispery voice, and Teshin stated that that was one of the Queens, yeah.”  
The Lotus speaks again. “This is Wing. He is the one I sent to find out what happened. Seeing as we have a trace of Teshin’s signal, he requested some aid in approaching the area.”  
“Yep. I mean, I’m good at hiding and running, seeing as I’m fond of Zephyr, but even with my two allies I still need someone who can help keep us alive when we make it to the area. We’re stealth based, not too good in the survival area, you know?”

Glace nods. “I know. So? Where are we going?” They stand, and pad into the pond. The fish scatter, and Glace gets to work hauling Frost out of the water.  
“The signal is currently in a cluster of asteroids between Jupiter and Europa. It is too difficult for your Orbiters or Landers to approach. The best choice would be to fly in on Arch-wings and as much radio silence as possible.”

There’s A grunt as Glace finally gets their Frame out of the water. “Got it. I’ll head towards any rendezvous point you give me, Wing. I’ll send you an ETA after I manage to haul my frame back to my ship.”  
“Why was it out of your ship?”

The Lotus leaves the conversation.  
“I was busy killing Corups for Oxium and other resources. I have a need. For research.”  
“Ahhh, I see. Well, we’ll talk more once we’re at the rendezvous point. Until then!”  
“‘Till then.” The call ends.

“...Now I just gotta get you back to the clan room. That’s going to take a while…..”  
\------------------------------------------------  
A point in space near Europa, outside of Grineer security cordon range.  
\------------------------------------------------  
Glace glides forwards on their Archwing, Syndana stiffly waving behind them. A nearby asteroid lights up on their HUD, and they soar towards it. Three other Tenno are latched on the side of the asteroid facing away from their destination.

The all-black Zephyr waves at them. That must be Wing. Glace descends into the open space, a hand digging into the Asteroid to lock them in place. Short-range communications activate, displaying Wing and two other Tenno in their view.

“That didn’t take long.”  
“I was orbiting Mars.”  
“That’d do it. Anyways, the hot-pink Loki Prime you see on the left is Lexis.”  
“Hello~”  
“And the ice-coloured Mirage on your right is Alex.”  
“Greetings, Tenno.”  
“Hn. I’m Glace. So, what’s the situation?”

Wing rises “upwards”, pointing into the distance. “There’s definitely some high security there. Scanners, turrets on a hair trigger, and a Grineer battalion I haven’t seen before. There’s something in there, though. The Lotus found a very complex security matrix-- but it’s nothing some good old-fashioned worm viruses can’t get through. The problem is getting to the console and surviving. Until we’re in the control center for that security matrix, attacking isn’t an option.”

“So it’s stealth in space, basically,” Lexis remarks. In the live feed from her Somatic Link Chamber, a hand runs through her red hair. “Not all of us are built for that, though. I’m the only one who has an Itzal.”  
“Not my fault I didn’t want to grind for a different Archwing.”  
Alex speaks up. “And some of us like a change from stealth once in a while.”  
“...Some of us just wanted to punch corrupted in the Face.” Glace adds.

“Anyways, back on topic--” Wing takes command again. “--Cephalon Shyanni, my Cephalon, has pointed out that the areas outside this shipping corridor ahead of us are too dangerous to go through. So we have to punch straight through, and act in an organized formation to get to the point where we can shut this mess down.”

Wing backs up, and gestures to the rest of his squad. “I recommend we go in the following order-- Alex, Glace, Myself, Lexis. If only because someone can go invisible, so her energy trail won’t be seen. Is this agreeable?”  
All members nod their heads.   
“Then file in after Alex. Glace, if you can, use your Velocitus’ iron sights to try and pick out the entrance to the command center and mark it.”  
“Confirmed.”  
“....Here comes a ship! Go, go, go!”

The four Tenno fly off, slowing speed once they’re on the side of the ship. The first scanner comes from the left. As they’re sailing through, Glace glances down the sights of their rifle and focuses. No entrance yet.

Alex rises, and the line follows. The scan from below misses them, as does the next two. After the fourth one, Glace finally finds the entrance to the command center. The rifle is lowered, and they give a sharp tug to Alex’s foot. The Mirage looks back and nods. Glace takes the lead, flying at a faster pace into the unguarded entrance they found.

All four Tenno enter, Archwings detaching and hooking onto the meteor’s interior walls. This place has its own gravity, so the mobility devices are hooked onto the ceiling.  
Fang makes a few gestures with his hands.  
“Lexis, go to the right. Alex, go the left. I’ll go straight ahead. Glace, start looking for the main computer.” Is what they basically mean.

The cell spreads out, each taking their own path through the area. Lexis stays invisible, Alex rolls from cover to cover, and Wing keeps as high as he can get.  
Glace belongs to the other school of stealth, though. The school of ‘if everyone’s dead, it’s still stealth.’

Luckily for them they happen to have good accuracy and a strong, silent sidearm. They pad through the halls, hunting these black-and-red armored Grineer. They end up finding a wide-open area, open to the void of space. There’s a lone Ballista patrolling.   
One shot, and the blast damage kicks in on top of the critical hit. The corpse goes soaring up into the starry void of outer space.

They still have no solid idea why that happens. Doesn’t stop it from being both amusing and useful. Later, though. Time to keep pressing on. A few minutes later, Glace finds the command room. It’s an intimidating place, and very, very red. But there’s a few beams near the ceiling. Glace bullet-jumps up there, hands grabbing on the edge. With careful shifting of their weight, the Tenno hooks their legs onto the metal beam. They waypoint the place, then settle in to wait.

Lexis and Wing show up not long after, joining Glace in hanging from the beam. Alex soon charges in, a glowing red datamass in his hands. Wing and Lexis drop down, and the three set up a few defensive points. The Datamass is inserted, and the alarms start blaring.

The red-armored Grineer rush in, firing wildly. Glace finally drops down from the ceiling, slamming their melee weapons into the ground. The shockwave manages to stun a few soldiers, and the Snowglobe that they drop next pushes even more of them back. The siege to shut down the security matrix has begun.

A pink Cephalon pops up in the corner of the Cell’s vision. “Two minutes until shutdown, wheee~!” Grim features settle over all of their faces. That was a damn long period of time…. Nothing else to do but just go for it!

The room becomes swarmed with flashes of gun muzzles, and the chiming of bullet casings hitting the ground. The three stealthier Tenno are focusing on damage. Glace is focusing on pure defence. Thankfully, one of the cell has a handful of energy regeneration disks. This makes this easier than it would be. Especially since Glace has some energy to spare to fling out the occasional avalanche.

Time drags onwards. The seconds tick down. Time… finally expires. “Matrix shut down~ go ahead and kill the rest of the bastards in the room~!”   
Wing pulls out a Marelock and starts going to town. Glace is content to freeze everything and watch the others shatter them.

A creaking stillness sets back over the asteroid center. “Finally…. Thank fuck that’s over.” Lexis leans backwards.   
“Not done yet, Lexis. Gotta go onwards.”  
“Damn.”

The Cell moves out once more, returning to their Archwings. Everything clear, the four boost forwards, ever close to Teshin’s signal. Lexis sees the structure first, pausing in the air. “....What in the shit am I looking at?”  
The Four tenno stop, staring at what’s before them. “I think that’s the crown jewel in the Grineer Empire. Where the Queens reside. Why’d they choose an asteroid?”

Glace points to the rear of the palace. “Those are Fomorian engines. This damn thing moves around.”  
“No wonder we couldn’t find it…. It’s always on the move.”

Static cuts into their conversation. The Lotus briefly shows up on screen, before the images fades to static. “Tenno-- I’m hav-- ...--ble contacting you. The signal is having trouble getting through. Return to your Or-- …. --ait for for Teshin’s signal before advancing.”  
“Well, you heard the boss.” Alex flies off.  
“Awwwww…. I wanted to look in there.” Lexis also leaves.

Wing turns to depart, but pauses as Glace is just staring at the fortress. “...Glace?”  
“...No. No, I’m going in there.”  
“You sure?”  
Glace turns to face their fellow Tenno. “Yes. Think about it-- this damn ship moves, and there’s mild issues in communication signals. There’s no telling when Teshin’s signal will cut out, and if it does, we may never find this place again.”  
“...Well, that’s blunt and tactical. Guess it’s what you do, though.”  
“It is.”

The black Zephyr shakes its head and shrugs. “I’m not going to stop you, but I’ll stay in the shipping cordon here to act as a waypoint out for as long as I can. You go onwards, you madman. I’ll contact The Lotus.”  
“...You’re alright, Wing. Thanks.” Glace leans forwards, and boosts off towards the fortress.

“Lotus. Glace has left to infiltrate the fortress-- I let them go ‘cause their logic convinced me.”  
“--at did you say? Glace has left? Re-- ….--ignal not clear.”  
“Glace went ahead. I’m staying here for now to act as a waypoint out.”  
The only sound The Lotus responds with is a sigh.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
Kuva Fortress, Ventilation shaft.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
It’s too small in here to crouch-walk, is the thought on Glace’s mind. They dislike crawling-- too hard to get into a better position, but here they are, crawling through the vents in this bullshit fortress. This…. Kuva Fortress, according to some of the guards they’d overheard. The hell is Kuva? They’ve never heard of it.

They pause above a vent, looking down onto the floor below and listening. There’s only the creaking of the Fortress, and an odd hum in the distance. Glace opens the securest transmission channel they have. “Wing, I’m in. Found out this place is called the Kuva Fortress. Advancing towards Teshin’s signal.”  
The only response is static.

“...Damn. Can’t hear you, and I dunno if I you can even hear me. Still advancing onwards. Once I find out more information or progress on this infiltration I’ll try contacting you again.” 

More crawling on their stomach through the goddamn vents. Why were they so small in this place…? It was either this vents or god-awful open areas with scanners they can’t shoot into submission. Ugh. Goddamn leaders of enemy forces and their paranoia, preventing them from having any fun.

Then their hand sinks through a rusty panel, catching the Tenno off-guard. Frost’s face bounces off the other side of the square hole before sliding through, letting Glace blink a few times before looking around.  
That had hurt. Oooh! An elevator that was well-secured! And that was roughly above Teshin’s signal! Score! Now to find the three damn keys that were securing this shit.

And that took a while. These damn keyes were huge, and located very, very far away from the other two (and the elevator). But they were finally there. Glace crouched by the control panel, and tried to message out to Wing again.  
“Found an elevator above Teshin’s signal. I’ll be as quiet as I can when approaching.”  
“.........Oka…………… ful, Gla…..”  
“Heh. Heard part of that. Going in now.”  
The activation button pressed, the elevator starts going down.

Glace stays crouched and ready to bullet-jump back up if needs be. Hah. If anyone’s at the bottom, they’re definitely going to see this mass of black and silver against the sickly yellow and crimson shades of the elevator. It won’t stop them from trying to be stealthy, tho-- wait, they’re already at the bottom?

The hell, that was a short elevator. Glace rises, and quietly pads forwards, Lex Prime held at the ready just in case. As they reach the door at the end of the corridor they were in, Transference glitches a bit. For a few sickening moments, Glace loses feeling in their right arm, and static crosses their vision with a ringing noise.  
“Wing, if you can hear me, let Lotus know that something in this fortress is able to interfere with transference. I’m going to attempt to locate the source to make future infiltrations easier.”

Glace takes off jogging, swapping out their pistol for the rifle they’ve come to rely on. Out of habit, they reload the Latron Prime even though it’s missing one round from its clip. They slow down once they reach a large, square-shaped room.

They hear the sound of Grineer commands in the distance. Figures they’d have some way to tell if that elevator had been triggered. They could shoot everyone, buuuuut, their energy reserves for using their Frames’ abilities is full. Glace leaps into the room, soaring into the middle of the approaching assault force. The shields on their frame tank all the bullets fired at them as they cast Avalanche, waves of frozen gases cascading over their foes. All of those not dead are frozen in place, and it only takes a few careful slices with their polearm to slay the rest.

Glace takes a moment to absorb what energy is left over from the Grineer, then resumes jogging onwards. They stay silent, aside from delivering a few muted bullets to the rare Kuva-class Grineer.

Sliding under a scanner deposits the Tenno in a very red room. And if that wasn’t sending their nerves alight enough--  
“We have a gift for you….”  
Oh god damn it. Of course the Queens know they’re here, why would they not?! Glace takes in a deep breath, steadying their nerves. They roll under the last security scanner, and pause just inside the new room. That blue light in front of them made them even more worried.

But they had a job to do. And damned if they would give it up. Frame and Tenno crack their neck, then start padding slowly forwards.

Something starts crawling up in the back of their mind as they advance. The shape of this place…. The lighting was off, and these red braided patterns were new, but-- “I know this place….”

The soft sound of rubber on metal gets Glace to whip their head around. “Wait, Teshin?!”

“You should have turned back, Tenno. You’ve ruined us both.” Teshin’s sword slides slightly out of his sheath. Deep booms echo throughout the throne room, and a type of Grineer Glace has never seen before step out of niches in the wall, mighty spears of a sort slamming into the ground. Then the sound of whirring equipment reaches their ears, and Glace glances upwards to see the Queens descend into the room.

The one holding a scepter speaks first. “Well done, Teshin Dax.”  
“Teshin… Dax? Ah, shit, you’re with them, ain’t ya?” Glace swears. This is getting worse by the second… Unknown opponents, queens, and apparently Teshin all against one Tenno. They could just abandon their frame but-- no. Never. This had been a gift from old allies, not long after their first awakening. Thoughts are running through Glace’s head a thousand hundred a second, but those are shoved aside for the sake of trying to find a way out of here.

“I have come as you commanded, my Queens.” Was it just them, or was there a tone of remorse in his voice?  
“And this is your offering? My sister needs the orphan child, not it’s Infested puppet!” The second queen speaks up.  
“The child? For what purpose!?” Hey, that was genuine anger… was Teshin being forced into this?  
“To eat it, of course!”  
Wait what the FUCK--

“Hush, Worm! Do not question your Lords, Teshin Dax. Bring me the orphan. Bring me my Yuvan.”  
Glace finishes processing. “The fuck do you mean, eat me?!”  
Worm crosses her arms before her. “Oh, what language!”  
“Oh, it’s not their fault, Worm. Mommy and Daddy weren’t around long enough to teach them any manners.” The other queen-- staff? No, elder-- finishes her comment with a peal of sickly laughter. “We will have to.”

Glace can’t react fast enough to avoid whatever Teshin flung at them from behind. Transference is interrupted as the frame falls to its knees, an unpleasant staticy sensation crawling over the Tenno’s skin.  
“Ordis! What the hell is happening?!”

“It’s a Transference surge, Operator!” Sweet merciful gods Ordis can still get through. “You’re losing your Warframe connection!”

Elder butts in. “You have some idea that you’re invincible, don’t you? Nestled away in that mad Cephalon’s crib--”  
“DON’T YA DARE DISS MY PARTNER!”  
“--But you belong to me now. For you see, child, we conceived of these ugly, metal cysts.”

“Operator! Cut the link!”  
Glace’s attempt is blocked by a headache. “Can’t! Crazy lady is fucking with my head….!”  
“We gave you your precious gifts. And now, just as easily, we can take them all away!” Glace gets a hint of red tendril snaking into their skull.  
“Oh hell no, I’ve seen enough--”  
“CUT THE LINK! Transference overload in 5… 4… 3--” Glace blacks out before they can hear the rest of the count down.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Something cold lands on their ear. It fades. Another drop of cold hits their nose.  
...Holy shit its cold. Where the fuck are they?!

After a bit of twitching to make sure nothing was broken, Glace sits up and shakes their head a few times. Everything is blurry. Shit, where the hell are their glasses?  
A slight crooning gets their attention. Ah, their Wyrm Prime has them stuck on one of his tendrils. Glace takes them and re-attaches them to their face once more.

Sight, glorious sight. Aw fuck, everything is metaphorically on fire.  
“Oh, great job, ship Cephalon. More like ship fail-bot. When the Operator needed you most you--”  
“I ain’t dead yet, damn it.”  
“Operator? By stars! Don’t do that to me. I am sorry. I do not know what happened. Please, command me to self-destruct-- Let me do it for you. Commencing self-destruct in 5--4--”  
“Stop that, ya dolt!” An odd ringing finally registers in Glace’s ears. “Wait, is that music? The hell is up with that?”

“It’s an aid in calming down. Would you like me to lead you in some breathing exercises?”  
“Later. Please turn it off an’ get Transference power back on, okay? I ain’t leaving Frost there.”  
“I have been trying to get it back online, Operator. It appears it needs to HAVE MORE ENERGY SHOT-- you shall need to do your Tenno thing again.”  
Tenno thing? Ordis didn’t usually speak like that, did he? Had this crash damaged him even more…?

Glace takes in a breath. “Let me stand up first. Gotta make sure I’m still in a base working order, after all.”  
“Understood, but do hurry up. We might not have much time.”  
That… definitely sounded odd. Whatever.

Two minutes later, Glace rises. A hand lazily rises towards the top of the transference chamber, but an attempt to send a beam of Void Energy that direction results in their palm smarting and a shower of crimson sparks showering down around them. “The hell…? That’s worrying. It seems as though I can’t use void energy….”

“Are you sure? That’s… worrying. How will you command your Warfra-- CONDITIONS SATISFIED. ENGAGING PURGE PRECEPT.”  
“Uh, Ordis…?”  
Their shoulder starts stinging as their companion starts shooting at them.   
“What the fuck, Ordis?!”  
“YOU NO LONGER POSSESS TRANSFERENCE. YOU NO LONGER CONTROL THE WARFRAMES YOU ARE NO LONGER THE OPERATOR. YOU MUST BE PURGED FROM THE VESSEL.”  
Another shot from the Wyrm hits Glace. 

Fuuuuck them. Glace turns and starts running for the door out of the Transference room. Not that they can run all that fast… Their legs were still decently weak from the Second Dream.

“Apologies, non-Operator, but I am going to decompress the Orbiter.”  
“WE BETTER NOT BE IN OUTER SPACE, YOU FUCK!”  
A wave of frigid air crashes through the Orbiter. Thank fuck there’s oxygen in it-- in an amount that’s easy to breath, too. At least they ain’t gonna die if they can get out of here.

They duck a shot, and keep on running up the ramps. “Former Operator, Ordis cannot keep missing like this!”  
“I AIN’T GOING DOWN THAT EASY!”  
“Former Operator, Please, get out of here!”   
“...I got it. I’ll come back once I figure out what the fuck is going on! I’m not leaving you alone, dork!”

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE THE NON-OPERATOR!”  
Glace sprints up the last ramp into the cockpit, not pausing despite the fact the Kuva Fortress is in the display.  
“Operator! Cut the link, cut the link!”  
“Ordis?! What?!”  
Their view goes white.

When they come to, Earth is in the view of the Scimitar’s deployment screens. How did they get here…? Where… where were they going?  
A snowy mountain soars into their view. Hovering a foot above the snow, the Scimitar opens up and deposits them, face-first, into at least a solid foot of snow. The drop ship flies off, and Glace is swearing quite colourfully into the frozen water below them.

My god it’s fucking cold. They rise, and fold their arms over their chest. Stars, their teeth are already clattering. There’s a path up here, and they’ve gotta be at this place for some reason…! Might as well march on.  
They leave a path behind them, and despite the howling winds, it doesn’t seem that they’ll fade for a while.

Glace will just keep following the flags and what little path they can see, fighting the wind all the way if they have to. Slogging through this bullshit is eventually rewarded-- they find a cave where the damn wind can’t get to them. Hah…. still cold, though! Gotta keep pushing forwards. The warm, orange light of a fire flickers on the walls in the distance.

Oh how cheery, there’s a corpse at the fire. “Sheeesh…. The hell happened to you?”  
“They gave up.”  
Glace snaps around, crouching just a bit. Teshin. The bastard had followed them-- just super.  
“Haven’t you tormented me enough, old man? For fuck’s sake, it’s like your mission in life is to just--”  
Teshin zooms forwards, hoisting Glace up by the front of their hood. “I see your mouth, at least, will make this the hard way.”  
“What the hell are you talking at, dog of th’ Queens? I ain’t your damn stick to fetch!”  
“Now I am forced to undo what Margulis did, to open the gates… and to make you suffer.”

Then a high-pitched gunshot rings out, hitting the wall right before Teshin’s face.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
A minute or two earlier, ?????? at ?????????  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Why the heck is everything cold? Wasn’t she at the tower? Marduk pushes herself up from the ground and shakes her head, dislodging a large quantity of snow. Snow? The shit?

She stands up, smacking the offending substance off of her clothing. Phew, her armor is still around her waist. That’s going back on, it’s cold as balls here. Okay! Time to survey the surroundings!

1: This is a mountain.  
2: A really fucking cold mountain.  
3: There’s some old-ass flags here with very faded sigils on them. None of those signs looked familiar, to boot.  
4: She still has Hawkmoon. She can feel the gun’s weight on her lower back.  
5: There’s a trail in the snow-- doesn’t look that old, either. Maybe a minute or two.

The Guardian pulls out her hand cannon, for a bit of mental ease if nothing else. It seems that wherever she is, she doesn’t have her helmet on her. Still has the goggles Holiday lent her, though. Probably why her eyes haven’t frozen yet.

Another glance around lets her spot someone walking in the distance. Someone who was really ill-equipped for this nonsense from the looks of it. Hey, wait, that blue looks kinda familiar.

Eh, think later, act now. Marduk places Hawkmoon back on her hip and starts jogging up the mountain side. Once she starts following in the tracks left behind, the Warlock starts making good time.

A cave, huh? It’ll be harder to track that other being through here, but at the same time they’ll be more spots for hiding.  
Hearing someone talk makes her pull out the Handcannon due to glorious reflexes.   
“...pened to you?”  
Hey, that was Glace’s voice!

Marduk’s charge forwards halts-- letting her fall forwards into more goddamn snow, thank you physics-- after hearing another voice speak up. That second voice doesn’t sound good. Especially after Glace calls it a dog. Then there’s a slight choking sound, and Marduk thinks fuck it.

She jumps, then utilizes her own Arc skills to float higher and onto the rocky ledge looking over the fire. How either of them didn’t hear her is beyond her, but that don’t matter! This disk-hatted cunt has her damn friend in a bad situation. Marduk raises Hawkmoon, and pulls the trigger. 

One of the lucky thee wild card crits leave the barrel, taking out a good chunk of the wall. Even better, some of the Shrapnel embeds itself into disk-cunt’s face. “Drop the Tenno, you samurai-lookin’ mother fucker.”

Said fucker of mothers in question turns to face them, and despite the fact she can’t see his eyes, Marduk just knows he didn’t expect to see her there.

Glace looks up from where they’ve been dropped on the floor. “Marduk?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hot damn depression is a bitch. Took so god darn long 'cause I was in a maximum depressive funk for a solid two months...  
> Anyways, the start of TWW is here! 
> 
> I'm also debating doing odd stories on the side of other things these two get up too that aren't in the plot yet/don't really fit.... Would any of y'all be interested in that, though?


	5. The War Within, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things have shifted, within the mental war. Instead of one Tenno ensnared in the web, a Warlock has joined the fray.

Silence fills the cave. Teshin is still holding up Glace by the throat, and a very irate Marduk is pointing the still-smoking barrel of Hawkmoon at his face. The Dax thinks. Slowly, he lowers the Tenno to the ground and lets them go.

“Good. Now, step away from them and stand on the other side of the fire. The second I see you trying shady shit I’m shooting at your head, frisbee headgear be damned.”

Teshin’s face resumes it’s usual neutrality. He backs away from the Tenno, who is currently massaging their neck. This… being who should not be here walks towards the fire, and casually picks up a burning log. She’s unfazed by the flames roaring at the end of it.  
Hawkmoon is still pointed at Teshin’s face as Marduk walks backwards. “Glace, can ya hold this log? While I can fire one-handed, my accuracy is much better when I have two hands available.”  
“Considering how you saved me from possibly being slaughtered, it’s the least I can do.”  
“Excellent. Now, going outside is a shitty idea, so we might as well go further in. This looks like some old-ass building of sorts, so there’s probably another way out.”  
“You’ve been in more ruined things than me, from the sound if it. Lead on, Warlock.”  
The pair back up. Teshin stays still, until they are passed the door that they haven’t seen.

He ducks, and hurls his Orvius forwards. A shot rings out, and binks off of his helm.

Marduk realizes that this disk-thing isn’t aiming at them. Might as well get a cheap shot in, despite not knowing what it’ll do. Marduk just clenches her fist. This summons a compressed ball of Arc energy, which she flings towards Teshin.  
The doors slam shut before she can see if the grenade’s scanner hits the bastard and tases him.

“Goddamn cheap disk-head. Anyways, you alright, Glace?” Marduk asks.   
Glace seems irritated. “Aside from pain around my neck due to being choked just a bit, not really. Something weird is going on.”  
Marduk holsters Hawkmoon again, and leans back against a door. “Well, mind telling me? Odd stuff is happening on my end, too. It’s not every day you find yourself just waking up on a mountain after passing out in the Tower’s ship hangar.”

Glace snorts a bit. “Yeah, that’s about as weird as what’s going on at the moment on my side. For a blunt summary, Teshin-- the man you shot at-- seems to be working for the Grineer Queens, those two actually exist, and I think they’re fucking with my mind right now. That or they did, and this is all just some weird-ass hallucination.”  
“I don’t think shared hallucinations are a thing, even over dimensional boundaries.”  
“A good point. So something is going on, we don’t know what it is, and it seems you’re here in person?”

Marduk rests her hands on her hips. “Damn straight I’m here in person! This ain’t another of my Trances. Prove it to yourself, if you want!”  
Glace promptly pads forwards and pokes Marduk’s nose.  
“...A nose poke?”  
“Shush. I’ve always wanted to try that.”  
“Fair enough, fair enough. You all right with my idea?”  
“Yes, but can I put down the log and try to warm up a bit first?”  
“The hike up that mountain was pretty damn cold, wasn’t it? Eh, we can spend a few minutes.”

With that stated, the Guardian sits on the ground and leans back against the door. “If y’ want, you can sit on my lap? I dunno if it’ll help, but that suit of yours looks kinda torn.”  
“I was shot at several times…. I’ll take you up on your offer.”   
Glace rests down the still-burning long their holding, then shakily sits down and scoots over to Marduk.  
“Would you mind if I flop over you?”  
“Not at all, I’m freezing.”

Marduk nods, slightly pulls Glace closer, then flops over their head.   
“This day is turning into a massive shit-show. But hey, at least I ain’t completely alone~!”  
“You always manage to see the positive, don’t you?”  
“Yep! The world’s crap-tastic, so someone has to at least try and be positive.”  
“Hrm.”

Glace ends up relaxing into Marduk’s hold. They realize that they’ve stopped shivering. Hm, they didn’t even realize they were that cold. Well, no matter, they’re warming up now.  
Five minutes later, the building rumbles.

“...That’s a sign we should get moving. You going to be alright?” Marduk inquires.  
“I shall be fine, yes. A bit chilly, but that’s no big deal.”  
“I will literally give you my damn coat.”  
“No. Keep it.”  
“Fine, but you stand up so we can get moving.”

Glace shakily rises, their right leg still a bit weak from that long slumber. Marduk notes this, and offers the Tenno a hand. They just stare at it for a few moments before holding out their own in confusion.  
Marduk simply smiles and holds her own arm against her side, resting Glace’s hand on it.   
“Now I can support you. It’s the least I can do, for someone I consider a friend.”  
“But do you really? You sure you don’t see me a child?”  
“Heck no, from the gleam in your eyes you’ve been through more shit than I have, even if you don’t realize it. Age don’t matter in that aspect.”  
“...Wish others could see that.”  
“If they don’t see it, make ‘em. All I got to offer.”  
“Hah.”

The pair fall silent, and start walking forwards. There’s only a bit of wincing when a light around a corner beams into their eyes. And then they hear Teshin’s voice.  
“I don’t know where you came from, grey-haired one, but you cannot stop my task. I must make the Tenno realise what has been hidden.”  
“Then do it without violence, ya dick. Words only, if you can.” Marduk growls, Hawkmoon resting in her free hand.  
“...Very well. Margulis lied to you, Tenno, a lie of omission. She did not cure the Zariman children-- she erased them. My only hope is that the truth still lingers inside you, buried within your mind. The power and the misery… of the void.”

The pair keep walking on as Teshin speaks. Down a hill, into a rocky tunnel that appears to open up at the end.  
“...Zariman? That sounds like a ship name.”  
“It is. The Zariman 10-0. A colony ship that, at the time, was carrying a mix of various different beings from the Orokin Empire away from the Sentient Wars to try and establish a colony out of their range. Males, Females, and children were aboard.” Glace blinks. “...Odd-- that memory was fuzzy until now.”  
“Sentients?”  
“Um. Not that sure on them, actually. They’re both a new and old player on the field of this system-- Sentients lead to the downfall of the Orokin, then the Sentient seemingly retreated. We Tenno slaughtered the rest, then the Orokin. Admittedly because a traitor Sentient, after gaining ‘control’ over us Tenno, sealed off the current offensive leader in this system, Hunhow, so he couldn’t sweep though and finish getting his victory and Sentient domination over the solar system.”  
“Sheeesh, and I thought my world’s issues were complicated….”  
“It’s a different type, probably.”

The tunnel opens up before them, revealing a large golden structure that has icicles dangling between circular prongs. Teshin starts speaking again.  
“The Ayatan Sculptures are perpetually in motion, monuments of Orokin Continuity… Orokin Immortality. But, this one is halted and aging, needing you, as the Queens do. Will you give into them? Or will you face the coil?”  
“I was about to say, shit looks frozen in place t’ me.”  
“Do you think we can start it up again?”  
“Hmm…. I don’t think I can. Any gunshots might set the place caving in, and none of my skills can reach that far. Um. Maybe if I set my Void powers to be more lance-like, but that’d take too much time.”  
“Mh. I… might be able to, but the last time I tried, I only hurt myself….”  
“Hey, I’ll patch you up to the best of my ability~!”  
“Hah. I’ll take my own scars, thank you very much.”

With that stated, Glace holds out a palm towards one of the large icicles. They take in a breath, and with a small jolt of their elbow a short beam of dark-red energy leaves their hand in a shower of sparks. Glace hisses and draws their arm back, shaking their hand out.  
The icicle the beam hit shatters, and falls into the chasm below with a deep rumble. “Oww. Two more. I can do this.”  
“If you start falling, I’ll lend you a hand an’ keep you on your feet. I might not be good at healing, but I’ll try.”  
“...Thanks, Marduk.”

The path narrows out and Glace carefully steps onto the path first, so that despite being sideways they can attempt to fire at the icicles. The second falls with a crash, as does the third. Glace shakes their head, eyes partially unfocusing for a second.  
“Whoa, you alright?”  
“Yeah…. Just…. Gotta get this thing started again.”  
Before Marduk can speak, Glace starts firing their beam again. Before the massive sculpture can start moving once more, Glace passes out and falls to their knees.  
“Glace! Glace, you alright?!”

The Tenno starts falling into the chasm. “GLACE!”   
Marduk tries to pull them back up, but her foot slips, and she joins the Tenno in falling down. “Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!” The stream of obscenities fade as the pair fall into the chasm, the Guardian dragging the Tenno into a hug to shield them from hitting the ground first.  
\--------------------------------------------  
An Uncertain Amount of Time Later  
\--------------------------------------------  
Their head is throbbing. From one point in their forehead, what seems to be a tangle of invisible vines comprised of pure pain spread around their skull. And a voice starts whispering in their head. Oh. They remember….

A woman with hair blacker than the starless sight that used to be outside takes their hands, a man with hair that seems to be shimmering pacing anxiously in the background.  
“......, sweetie, there’s been a bit of an accident with the ship. But there’s no need to fear, my child-- my angel. You’re safe here with me. I promise I will always protect you.” But her eyes are foggy, unfocused. You know her well enough to tell that she’s lying.  
Glace’s eyes snap open, blearily staring at something very blue in front of them. What… what had they been doing?  
Oh yeah. Caves. Giant Ayatan sculptures. Inability to use their void powers. Marduk. Marduk…? Oh, shit, Marduk!

They push themselves up, perhaps a bit too quickly. Marduk is underneath them, unconscious. From the looks of it, she didn’t smack her head on the ice-- but then why was there a faint trail of blood gleaming against the pale surface?  
With shaky legs, Glace carefully stands and steps away from the Guardian. This is when they see the bones around the area. Bones about the same size as they are. Creepy.  
Glace kneels next to Marduk, and rests two fingers along her neck. “Thank the Void, you still have a pulse. Hope you can forgive me as I look over the rest of you.” They remove their fingers, and shift their attention to finally following that blood trail. Ah. There we go-- a broken bit of arm bone from some hapless skeleton stuck in her thigh. It hadn’t punctured through her coat, but her pants would have a large hole in them. Probably not worthy to endure the void of outer space any more.  
“You wouldn’t happen to have any clean cloth, would you?”  
“Firs’ pocket on my right, inside the coat. By my hip.”  
“Thanks, Marduk. You should know you’ve been lightly impaled by a bone.”  
“So that’s what it is. Damn. Give me a few more minutes and I can get up.”  
“You’re going to stay down there until I get this bone out of your leg.”  
“Don’t freaking touch it until you’ve got that cloth ready.”  
“Noted.”

A bit of rustling in Marduk’s coat, and a bit of clean cloth-- and a roll of bandages-- is pulled out. This will make things much easier. “Yanking it out in three.” The seconds pass, and Glace yanks out the bone.  
Marduk hisses a bit, leg twitching a bit.  
Glace promptly stuffs the cloth into the hole, to sop up blood and prevent most of it from trickling out of her leg. The bandages are promptly wrapped around the leg over the pants (They look way too complex to take off) firmly. They’re tied off, the ends stuffed under the knot.  
“There we go.”  
“Not half bad.”

Marduk has propped herself up on her elbows, and is glancing down at Glace.  
“Not everyone has access to a Trinity. I’ve picked up a few things from lending my time to the medics in the Steel Meridian.”  
“Those Grineer defectors you get along with, right?”  
“Mhm.”  
“I owe you my thanks, now.”  
“No. I still owe you. In the span of this weird even alone, you have done me two favors to my one.”  
“Bah, minor detail.”  
“It matters to me. Are you able to stand?”  
“Gonna hurt like a son of a gun, but yes.”  
“Good, because we have to keep moving.” Glace steps down to a yellow-illuminated floor, the sides of this new cavern seemingly decorated with stylized pillars that look a bit like rib bones and hips. The floor further under them looks to be nothing but human bones piled on top of one another, with a few pillars of natural stone few and far between.

“Well this ain’t fucking creepy at all. Jesus, not even Hive dwellings are this damn creepy.”  
Teshin’s voice echoes throughout the cave. “Why does it have to be so ravenous?”  
“The hell is UFO Samurai talking about now?”  
The bones cough up a bit of dust.  
Glace narrows their eyes, and picks up a skull. They bring back their arm and fling it at the dust.

A white and gold serpentine monstrocity bursts from the ground, rib-like mouth snapping shut around the skull and shattering it in a second. It somehow roars, then burrows it’s way back underground.  
“Well shit.”  
“What the fuck was that?!”  
“Orokin bullshit, top quality.”  
“The fuck!”  
“I know. That makes getting out of here harder for me. I have to touch the ground as I run. You can do that floaty thing.”  
“You’ve got a point. I don’t think I can carry you, either.”

The dust cloud starts up again, and circles away from their current location. Glace stares at if for a while, with Marduk ranting in the background about weight differentials and whatnot.  
“It’s following a pattern.”  
“--It’s what now?”  
“Following a pattern. See the plume of dust and the trail of elevated bones behind it? It circles around those two pillars. I can run to one, then the other, when that thing is far away from either location. It’ll probably speed up, but I should be able to make it.”  
Marduk frowns. “I don’t like it, but it’s the only way.”  
“If you want, you could try shooting in in the areas where it glows blue. That might do something.”  
“Bah, I’ll take it. Don’t think I’m going to go on ahead of you, though.”  
“I didn’t expect you to do so.”

Glace smiles at Marduk. Since the snake beast is far away from the pillar at the moment, Glace steps onto the bones and runs to the first pillar. Safe.  
The Guardian hops up and glides through the air onto the top of one of the bone pillars.  
This pattern continues until they get most of the way across the cavern. Teshin’s damn voice starts echoing throughout the room again.  
“The Queen burrows into your mind just as the creature worms beneath your feet. With each step, you will discover what Margulius took from you. With each step, pain awaits you.”  
“Ominous much?” Glace grumbles.  
“Guy is worse than Eris Mourn. All the symbolism, when he should just get to the damn point and tell you straight.”  
That gets a small laugh out of Glace.

The first cavern is crossed over, the pair now ascending a ramp deeper into the mountain. A pair of glowing figures float in the air, and Glace squints at them.  
“Who’re these people?”  
“I…. I can’t remember her face. Why don’t I remember her face?”  
“You know these people?”  
“I think one is me, and the other… the other is my mother…?” Glace reaches forwards, and touches the glowing figures. They burst apart into light, the sparks flowing into their being. A spark of knowledge returns to them.  
“Ah. So that’s how I do that.”

Teshin’s voice rings out again. “Your past has weathered Margulis’ manipulation. It lurks here, your only hope of surviving the Queens.”  
It seems Teshin is still in the mood to be incredibly ominous.  
Marduk shrugs, and resumes hobbling upwards. Glace catches up and offers their arm to the Guardian. A smile passes between them, and the pair resume climbing.  
Then a wall gets in their way. “Welp, bullets ain’t gonna do shit against this.”  
“Destroy this barrier, and go deeper into your past.”  
Very helpful, Teshin.” Glace grumbles. “Can you stand on your own for a bit, Marduk?”

“Yep. You feeling good enough to do that beam thingy of yours again?”  
“That won’t help. I have a feeling that this--”   
They thrust their palms forwards, a flower-shaped pulse of red energy leaving them. As wayward sparks shower down, the main surge of energy shatters the wall, stone shrapnel flying further into the cavern.  
“--Will.”  
“Nice! What’s that skill?”  
“Something I just remembered. I think it’s called Void Blast.”

Glace shakes their head, as the invisible crown of pain returns. A voice whispers into their head.   
“The air was acrid and still. The biomes had been sabotaged. The food stocks dwindled. Paranoia gripped your father's mind. What was it he said-- as he stared out into the starless black?”  
“My… father? My father….”

A flash of recollection. The black-haired woman, their mother, sitting in a corner rocking slightly back and forth. The man with shimmering hair paces in front of the window, glaring outside into the darkness. “Something’s out there, kiddo. It’s watching us.” He turns to face them, and there’s worry in his eyes.

Glace snaps back to attention, smacking themselves in the face once.  
“You alright there? You kinda spaced out then mumbled something about your father.”  
“I.., think so. But why’d I forget about my dad until now?”  
“Conditioned to the point where you forgot that shit? Seeing how Mr. Ominous disk-head keeps talking about buried shit.”  
“That’s… a good point. Now I’m wondering what else I’ve forgotten.”  
“It’ll probably come back sooner than later, now that it seems you’re starting to recall things.”  
“A good point. Let’s keep moving, then. All these white things are giving me the creeps.”

The pair resume walking onwards. There’s more figures of light ahead, along with a massive chasm. Pleasant.  
That whispery voice starts up again. “The whole ship went insane. And you now exist on the fold between two worlds.”  
The figures are touched, and the light enters Glace’s form once more. And they can now recall another skill… that of Void Dash.  
“The world we know, of blood and steel…. And the world that watches and dreams, the Void. Charge across the ford, as you once did.”

“Any idea what all that meant?”  
Glace responds by simply phasing across the gap.  
“...Yep, that’d do it. Now it seems we can have teleportation races!”  
A laugh echoes across the chamber. “Sure, why not. We can see who stops first, you if you get sick, or me if I run out of energy.”  
“Deal!”  
Marduk tapes a few steps back, then runs forwards as best as she can and jumps, then glides up and over the pit in a smooth arch. With Glace lending her support again, they both press onwards.

Right into another cave full of bone floors, and hungry snake-things lurking below. Super. But hey, there’s more rock platforms. “Mind if I try something potentially silly, Marduk?”  
“Not unless you test it out not over the snake-things first.”  
“That’s fair.”  
Glace turns around, hooks an arm around Marduk’s waist, then bends down a bit and slips into the void, dashing forwards. Marduk comes with.  
“That felt strange. Kinda similar to my own teleportation, though. I can’t bring others with me, though.”  
“Heh. Would you mind if I pull us through the next cavern then?”  
“Go for it.”

A few dashes later, and the pair are through the next room. “And here I was, kicking myself for not bringing a rope.”   
“Teleportation is far cooler. And flashier. And indimitating, really.”  
“Now that I can do so without using Nova, I must agree.”  
The ascent continues. Dashing over another pit and through the wall on the other side, Glace shakes their head as the pain comes back once more.

“Is that… the smell of smoke? Smoke… what’s special about smoke…?” Oh.  
Memories flash through their head again. 

The lower decks are lost, burning with flickering flames. Blood shimmers on the floor in the burning light, the shadowy figures of crouching bestial humans in the distance. Hunting parties. And yet, there’s singing in the distance, and the sound of play. All the children have come together.  
The whispery voice starts. “And your minds were somehow untouched, unbent. What did you do, after wiping away your tears?”  
“My tears…?”  
The black-haired woman, bloodied and on the ground, a piece of metal shrapnel though her throat. There’s madness in her eyes now, but as her life starts slipping away, it fades. For one last moment, their mother speaks as themself.  
“...., oh, my child…. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. Please… please, forgive… me….” The light in her eyes fades.  
They dabs at the tears in their eyes. “...Goodbye, mom. Every other kid on this ship is my family now.”

Glace snaps out of it when Marduk lightly shakes her shoulder. “Hey, Glace! You were out of it again. There was some weird glowy thing on your forehead, too.”  
“My forehead. That’s where one of the Queens poked my frame with a staff.”  
“Probably related.”  
“Fun….”

Further up the hall, there’s more figures-- this time it looks like three humans attacking someone on the ground. After Glace takes the light back into themselves, Teshin speaks once more.  
“The Queen is nearly through. She knows what you did, giving her resolve. Now, you must master the fold. Walk upon its edge, concealing your movement within the shadows you create.”  
“More cryptic bullshit, I see. Speak bluntly for once, damn it.” The Tenno grumbles.  
“Well, if I know my cryptic bullshit-- and I like to think I do-- that skill you regained probably lets you just camp out in the Void for a while.”  
“That makes sense, seeing this bone field in front of us.” Glace rests their hand on their chin, thinking for a few moments. They crouch down, and they vanish.

“Um… what the fuck? Where’d ya go, Glace?”  
“I’m still here.” They appear once more, standing up.  
“Invisibility. Nice.”  
“The next problem is how far apart the safe areas are in this cavern. Using this invisibility drains my energy pretty quickly.”  
“...Does it drain faster when you move, or when you’re slow?”  
“It’s the same either way. I have about twelve seconds of invisibility. I have to make the most of it that I can at that pace.”  
“Could you mask me as well, and I run for it while you hold us in the void?”  
“I… don’t think so. Rather, even if the situation is dire, I don’t want to be held.”  
“Personal choice. I can understand that.”

Marduk reaches her arms upwards, and leans backwards. “Welp, I can get across by doing stupid shit, but I should really stretch out first. And tweak a few things regarding my current path.”  
“Ah, I forgot you could do that. What are you changing?”  
“How my grenade works, and what parts of me the Arc energy within is powering. For this type of situation, toughness isn’t going to matter. It’s speed or nothing, baby! ...Speed and teleportation. We’ve been walking so long I’ve got enough energy within for some quality Trancing.”

“Just let me get to one of the platforms until you start teleporting about the place, you madman.”  
“I’ll do my best to keep the snake-thing off your back until you’re ready for me to blitz on though.”  
“Thank you, Marduk.”

The Guardian pulls out her hand-canon, and crouches down on the edge of the ledge above the bone fields. “Ready. Go for it whenever, I have your back.”  
Glace nods, and vanishes.  
Twelve tense seconds pass before they reappear. The bones near them bubble up a bit, but a shot at a skull farther away gets the beast’s attention. As it starts rumbling towards the noise, Glace vanishes once more. This routine continues one more time, at which point Glace is quite far away. They point off to the right-- apparently the cavern takes a turn. The Tenno points to Marduk, and then to the right again.

“Guess it’s my time to go, then!” Marduk nods, holsters Hawkmoon, then runs off the edge, leaping and gliding as far into the cavern as she can get. A few seconds before landing, she folds in on herself-- and with a bolt of pale blue energy, Marduk’s floating above the bonefield, small pulses of electricity running over her arms. She rests a foot above the bones, and holds a hand forwards. The light-blue energy envelops her again, and she dashes forwards as literal lightning just as one of the Golden Maw snake things burst from the ground.

Glace gets a look at Marduk’s eyes as she warps past. They’re glowing icy blue, and lightning leaks from the corners of them. She also appears calm, and at ease despite the fact she’s rapidly teleporting over a very hostile floor. She gets to the other side easily, and lands lightly on her feet, blue energy fading from her limbs.  
Marduk turns back around and waves at Glace. “Go for it! I’ve got your back once more!”  
They just shake their head and resume padding across the bone field. Glace makes it across at a much slower pace than Marduk.

Smashing through another warped wall, Glace staggers as-- guess what?-- the pain is back. And that damn whispery voice. It was starting to get on their nerves….   
“The Grownups are howling at the door… drowning mad in the Void ocean, but you… you are at ease, swimming within the depths! You now remember why the howling stops-- they had broken through.”

Lurking, wiry figures. Human adults, starved to bare bones and their eyes wild with madness. They’re hiding in a vent, observing what happens below. This is one of their fortified spots, a safe haven they can lurk in-- but it looks like it isn’t going to be safe any longer. From their hidey-hole, a murmur leaves their lips.  
“They’ve lost their minds. Can’t blame them for that….” The last adult runs though, howling with rage.  
They huff, and yank a repurposed power cable next to them. A cobbled-together metal wall, topped with spikes facing inwards, drops down. Another drops down in front of the insane humans, trapping the mad adults in place. They’re locked in. A series of taps echoes through their parts of the vents. They respond with a short, fast pattern.

“The Void had driven them insane. How could I blame them? We built a makeshift prison.” A blink, and they realize it feels like a hand or something was grabbing their neck. “These visions are getting creepier and creepier….”  
“I’ll say. I couldn’t see much-- minor headache on my side-- but it looked like some phantom-like hand was grabbing your neck.”  
“That’d explain why it feels like someone was trying to choke me.” Glace rubs at their neck one last time. 

The ascent resumes. One last figure is at the top of the tunnel-- that of someone kneeling over someone else. The light is almost calming. Glace accepts it back into their own form, and their eyes flash once. Marduk leans down and glances into them out of curiosity. A luminous gold circle, that she’d never noticed before, rests between their iris and pupils. “...What?”  
“Never noticed your eyes glowed before. It’s pretty cool!”  
“Heh. Discuss later, let’s keep moving on.”  
“You got it, boss! What’d you regain?”  
“I’m not certain yet.”  
And that’s all that was said on that.

Until Teshin butts in again. “Your repressed power has returned, fused with your Tenno abilities, amplifying them. You’ve outgrown the cradle. Now your Transference is innate. Control these Orokin beasts and escape this prison.”  
Glace pauses on the edge of the bonefield. A Golden Maw is slithering beneath the ground, dust drifting up from the ivory bones.  
“Control…? Do you mean Transfer into this beast, as I do with my Warframes? I’ve needed a Transference chamber until now.”  
Marduk lightly rests an arm on the Tenno’s shoulder. “Didn’t mister cryptic say something about powers now being innate?”  
“That’s… a good point. But in that case, how would I stun this thing?”  
“If nothing else, you can try smacking it in the face.”  
“Know that if I die it was your dumb idea.”

Glace steps onto the bones, and the dust drifts closer. This Maw seems a bit smaller than the others, as though it was a child. Glace flings their palms forwards, bombarding the snake-thing with energy. It lolls back out of the ground and screeches, groaning a bit. Glace focuses on what Transference feels like, and holds a palm out towards the Maw. And then, they flex a muscle that isn’t quite there, and the next thing they know, they’re resting on something looking down at Marduk.

Who promptly whistles. “Fancy. Y’in there, Glace?”   
They nod, trying to speak but only screeching a bit.  
“Pleasant voice you got there.”  
Marduk gets the sensation that Glace is giving them a withering glare.  
“Fine, fine, let’s return to getting out of here.”  
Marduk steps onto the bones, advancing towards a cluster of stalactites covering a cave entrance.  
“Well I’m not fitting through this. I doubt you could, either.”  
Glace tries moving their hands, finding it moves their ‘mouth’ instead. They promptly clang the halves together a few times.  
“No.”  
More clanging.  
“....Fine, but only if I get to ride on your head afterwards!”  
They nod.

Glace carefully hooks their ‘mouth’ around Marduk’s torso, letting her arms stay free. The Guardian rests said arms in front of her face, and takes a long breath in.  
Glace dives beneath the bones, quickly wiggling their way through them. The first second they can, they resurface, loosening their grasp on the Guardian.  
Marduk promptly hoists herself onto their head, and brushes some dust off of their coat.  
A screechy laughter rises from Glace, and they slither to the far side of the bone field, casually headbutting a gate open along the way.  
Marduk hops off onto a proper stone floor, and with a mild thought, Glace slips out of the Golden Maw and joins their friend.

Finally-- finally-- they get outside once more. Snow whips through their hair as Marduk grumbles a bit. Something about eating her own hair due to how long it is.  
Cue mister ominous once again.  
“Know this, Tenno-- that I am a Dax. A soldier of a lost era, the last of my kind. By Orokin hands, we Dax were given great power, great strength-- but an even greater weakness. To obey their commands. To never defy the Kuva, the Scepter, the symbols of their dominion. No Dax can ever raise steel against an Orokin. Only you can do that.”

“Scepter-- so that’s why you’re following the Queens! They hold items that command your unwilling loyalty.”  
“Sheesh, that’s some serious mental fuckery going on there.”  
“All the more reason to get out of here and do… do something.”  
“Haven’t thought that far yet?”  
“Nope.”  
“I feel that, man. Let’s keep moving.”

Yep, this is a cold-ass mountain. A really damn cold mountain. Mutual grumbling commences as the pair scale the damn thing, shivering all the way. Marduk’s way of dealing with the cold consists of a lot of swearing.

Finally, they get to a gold and white platform, with lamp posts still gleaming in the harsh mountain sun.   
“Time to see what bullshit is behind door number two.” Glace comments.  
And Teshin interrupts again. “A Yuvan theatre, long abandoned. In ages past, I would have stood guard as the young and exotic were paraded through the mountain pass and marched by the viewing pane. They’d barter here, the Orokin.”

For once, the two keep advancing through Teshin’s monologue. The door slowly slides open, as the Dax keeps speaking.  
“Withering and coughing-- as they prepared for their Continuity.”

Glace pauses at the top of a small staircase down. “Holy shit, the bitch doesn’t want me dead.”  
“Huh?”  
“One of the Queens sent me here-- and the other one mentioned Continuity. That old cone wants to steal my damn body out from under me!”  
A grim chuckle from Teshin. “You finally realize. The Queen indeed does not want to kill you. She’s trying to become you, by burrowing through your mind and corrupting it with despair until only she remains.”  
“Like fuck I’m letting that happen.” Glace storms forwards, determination gleaming in their eyes. Marduk is forced to jog afterwards, as the Tenno blazes towards a large, mirrored wall.

Once they get close, the Elder Queen appears, a wicked grin on her face. The grin widens at that whispery voice-- the Queen-- fills the room once more. “No crew aboard, only the children… only the parricidal monsters they had become.”  
The room fades, Marduk sinking until they grab one of Glace’s legs to hold on. The Tenno stares into the Queens eyes, the two mirroring each other’s movements, however slight they are.  
“The endless Void, the gazing abyss, the bottomless ocean of horror… it coiled itself around your tender heart.”

Glace glares into the Queens eyes, a hand resting over hers. “I controlled it. I used it to survive, yes, but I never rejected it, and I never let it get the better of me. I’m coming for you, you old, decrepit, dying hag!”

Something clicks within Glace, and energy gathers in the palm of their hand. They hold it out towards the mirror, and a beam of crimson red light streams out, starting to shatter the mirror before them.  
Ordis’ voice rings through their ears.

“CUT THE LINK!!!”  
They’re back in the Somatic Chamber. Does it feel a bit more cramped than usual? Why do they hear someone else swearing?  
“CUT THE LINK! TRANSFERENCE OVERLOAD IN 5… 4… 3… 2… 1”  
Glace forces the pain out of their mind, and the link is severed.  
The chamber opens, and they stumble out, tripping and falling face-first on the floor, the gloriously chill floor, good god that’s one hell of a headache.  
“Fucking fuck! No! I’m not falling down another damn pit to god knows where today!

“Operator, is that… is that ‘you’? Your brain activity flatlined for a moment there. Can you speak? Oh, By Stars, is the Operator’s mind is destroyed!?!?”  
“Ordis! Ordis, I’m fine, just… just don’t play any music. I have to think.” They’ve sat up now, and have a hand pressing lightly against their forehead.  
“Music? Operator, you are not making any sense! The Transference surge must have affected you as well-- there is more leftover Void energy than usual.”

“Can none of you bastards hear me or something?!”

“Please, try to get some rest while I make repairs. Wait… no, this… Hm… This is odd. The circuits are dead, but I’m detecting Transference energy… coming-- coming from you?!”  
“Do I get to keep the skills from that fever dream or something…?” Might as well try it out.

First, the Void Blast. That palm-strike thing.   
“Ah! Careful, Operator, you’ll damage the ship… damage me!”  
“Whoop, sorry, Ordis. Don’t do that again. Noted.”  
Next, that teleport thingy. Might as well call it a Void Dash.  
“Amazing… Operator, how are you doing this? It’s slightly terrifying, to be honest.”  
“I’ll tell you later.”  
Lastly, the invisibility-- literally hiding in a small pocket of the Void.  
“Operator, my sensors have gone dark. Where are you?”

“Fuck’s sake, someone notice me already!”  
Glace blinks, and turns to face the Somatic Link. Marduk is sitting on the edge of the ramp down, head flopped on a fist as they glare outwards.  
“Wh-- since when the hell were you here?!”  
“I’ve been here the whole time, Glace. What, you go blind or something?”  
“No, I just didn’t-- Oh. I didn’t see you.”  
“...I’m doing that invisibility thing of yours right now? Nice, but how do I get out of it?”  
“I’m… not certain. Let me quickly ask Ordis--” And they’re out of the Void “--about it. Crap.”

“Oh! There you are! Impressive-- and very useful! ...Ordis is a little afraid right now.”  
“If you want, I will promise that I will not do those things in the ship unless in a dire circumstance.”  
“Please.”  
“Hey-- silly question, but could you do that thing you do to see if Marduk is around?”  
“Of course, but I don’t see how-- Good heavens, she’s here, isn’t she?”  
“So I’m not hallucinating.”  
“Apparently not. Odd-- it’s similar to that invisibility trick earlier, but a bit less so. If I focus, I can almost see her.”  
“Start working on a way to get her fully here, please? I have an old crone to beat the crap out of. After I test one last thing.”  
“Which is?”

Cue Glace firing a beam of energy from a hand.  
“THE HELL-- Operator, you’ll breach the hull!”  
“Going on the list of actions to not perform, noted.”  
“That aside-- have you lost your mind?!”

“No, but I’ve lost my Warframe… and Teshin. I’ve gained a burning rage for the Queens, too-- oh, shit. What if the Queens know that Teshin helped me escape? I have to get back!”  
“That’s impossible! Just as you thought, the base moved again. Wing had to abandon post as the security was getting stronger as well-- we don’t know where it went. There’s no way back!”

“...Frost. Frost is still there!”  
“Haven’t you been listening? The Transference system is fried!”  
“Haven’t you realized it yet? I don’t need it anymore. You said so yourself, I’m releasing Transference energy! Ordis-- follow whatever direction I go off in, I’ve got a regicide to commit.” They close their eyes, and start focusing-- feeling through the Void for one particular frame, a companion at this point who’s been through so much with them.

“Not without fucking me you ain’t!”   
Glace doesn’t hear that, and misses the slight sensation of someone harshly grabbing their shoulder.  
But, they find what they’re looking for. Their Frost Prime, the scar from Stalker’s Hunhow-possessed blade still not fully healed. They reach, and they pull.  
“Operator! Don’t go! Don’t leave me!”  
\-------------------------------------------  
Kuva Fortress, Queens’ Chamber.  
\-------------------------------------------  
“What did you do, Dax! How did a child reject the Continuity?” The Elder Queen snarls, scepter pointing at Teshin. A red beam leaves it, and forces the Dax to his knees.   
“F-Forgive me, my Queens….”  
“We hold the scepter! We command you! We are--” The entire fortress shakes. The Queens pause, Worm sliding closer to her sister. The fortress rumbles again. Teshin slowly stands up, wincing in pain.

The glass pane below; before the Queens, bursts open. A Frost Prime rises, glowing cyan. It floats down to the floor between the rulers and Teshin, whatever liquid was below gleaming off of its’ silver highlights. The single cyan ‘eye’ stares at them, as the Frame holds it’s fists by it’s sides. The frame glows that chilly cyan, and Glace steps out of it, their own fists clenched and a steely gaze directed at the Queens.

“Sister! The dreamer’s come for us!” Worm shrieks. She immediately hides within the coils of her sibling, hidden from sight.   
“Tenno, no! After everything you’ve endured to escape, why did you come back?!”  
Glace turns their head, and smiles. “I came back for you. I may not participate in your games, but there’s a lot of other Tenno that would miss you if you suddenly disappeared.”

The Elder Queen hisses. “Stupid child! You don’t give up, do you? But coming here in the flesh? That was a big mistake. Guards! Kill this Warframe and bring me my new skin!”  
Glace steps back into Frost, and draws their Latron Prime. Frame and Tenno crack their neck, and stand ready.

A Kuva guard slams down onto the floor, spear at the ready. As she charges, Glace flings out a Snowglobe. They sidestep the charge, unloading a few rounds into the guard as she passes. Another Guard hops down onto the floor and charges towards Glace, bellowing out a challenge.   
Her call stops the second she passes in front of the panel Glace had broken through earlier. Rather, the Kuva Guard gurgles, looks down in confusion, and then screams as what appears to be a blade made of the night sky itself bisects her.

“What?! Who dares help the Tenno!”

There’s cackling from behind the still-standing corpse. It falls forwards, revealing a woman dressed in an ornate blue coat, sword of stars in hand. Marduk flips the Queens a finger, and speaks.

“Surprise, bitch! Bet you thought you’d seen the last a’ me!” The rather psychotic smile on the Guardian’s face is amplified by the fact that the Void-filled blade in her hand was still dripping with Grineer blood.   
Purple energy dashes along her arms. “Let’s dance, shall we? A dance to your demise!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know I actually wrote all of this chapter in like. Two days.  
> While avoiding writing a paper.   
> Priorities, am I right?
> 
> Anyways, the next chapter finishes up the War Within, which leads to, well, shenanigans in getting Marduk back home and just how very broken a Trinity would make Strike missions.  
> Feat. Omnighoul.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah. First fic. Idk if y'all'll like it or not, but either way I finally sucked up enough courage to post the darn thing.  
> And now to go hide in the recesses of the internet again out of sheer anxiety and fear.


End file.
